Surpassing the Ekphrastic Experience in Modernist Poetry

Abstract

The modernist poetry developed a fear of words being taken in their true literal sense, which W.T.J. Mitchell called the “Ekphrastic Fear”. This paper explores how the fear of literalism results in self-reflexivity, semiotic transparency and the pursuit of openness in Modernist poems. Ekphrasis verbally describes a work of art or an event that is either real or is imagined. The root meaning of Ekphrasis comes from the Greek words “ek” that means ‘out’ and “phrásis” that means ‘speak’, and “Ekphrazien” means ‘speaking out’ or ‘telling in full’. In the process, the poet gives voice to a silent object, and by detailing its fixed form, becomes immortal and static, thus suspending time. Ekphrasis is considered thrice removed from reality, being a representation of the original’s representation. Thus, a poet records his visual experience, whether it is what he has seen, reconstructed or imagined, as he perceives them, within the visual space that he constructs. In such poems, the image is the subject and the meaning is determined by the verbal representation of the subject. The tradition of Ekphrastic poetry as a literary work began with Homer’s description of the shield of Achilles in his book Illiad, and there are many poems that proliferated ever since.