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Modes of Ekphrasis: The Bildgedichte of Keats, Leconte de Lisle, and Rilke

2018; Boston University; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/arn.2018.0010

2327-6436

Theodore Ziolkowski,

Visual Culture and Art Theory

Modes of Ekphrasis: The Bildgedichte of Keats, Leconte de Lisle, and Rilke THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI As every literary scholar knows, the Greek vocable ekphrasis signifies “description” generally and, more specifically, has been appropriated to designate depictions in literature of works of art.1 The phenomenon extends from Homer’s elaborate portrayal of Achilles’ shield in the Iliad (18.483–608) down to such modern examples as W. H. Auden ’s detailed allusion to Brueghel’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” in his poem “Musée des Beaux Arts” (1940).2 While the term may most broadly cover descriptions of buildings, gardens, tapestries, friezes, and so forth, it is most commonly used for poems depicting specific objets d’art, whether paintings, sculptures, or other. English continues to use “ekphrasis” (or “ecphrasis”; correct plural: “ekphraseis ”) or the awkward term “ekphrastic poetry” to indicate such works, but German has coined the precise and telling phrase Bildgedicht (“picture poem”), which has sometimes been appropriated by other languages. More than any other scholar, Gisbert Kranz has written extensively about ekphrastic poetry, or Bildgedichte, and catalogued hundreds of such poems in several languages.3 However, ekphrasis should not be understood to mean simply the literary description of pretty pictures. Because the term covers such a wide variety of works in so many different languages, it seems useful to explore its usage in more specific detail by examining a group of three acknowledged poetic masterpieces, all of which take as their subject a work of art allegedly from Greek antiquity: Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819), Leconte de Lisle’s “Vénus de Milo” (1846), and Rilke’s “Archaïscher Torso Apollos” (1908).4 Despite arion 26.1 spring/summer 2018 their common subject matter, the three poems display conspicuous and typical differences in approach and treatment that reflect significant cultural developments. In the following discussions it will not be our aim to recapitulate the extensive and often repetitive analyses available in the secondary literature or the theoretical debate over the “sister arts” that goes back to Lessing’s renowned Laokoon oder über die Grenzen der Malerei und Poesie (1766; Laokoon or On the Boundaries of Painting and Poetry).5 We shall simply consider the manner in which each poet treats the object named in his title. 1. Ode on a Grecian Urn Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme; What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair! Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; 44 MODES OF EKPHRASIS And, happy melodist, unwearied, Forever piping songs forever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love! Forever warm and still to be enjoy’d, Forever panting, and forever young; All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent be; and not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e’er return. O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede...