Week 3: Painting with Words

Tuesday, September 1

• Asynchronous online class:
  • Watch this video on the Daedalus and Icarus myth.
  • Look at and annotate (using Hypothes.is) "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
    • What is Brueghel saying about the fall of Icarus?
    • How does he say it using a visual medium?
  • Read and annotate these poems:
    • W.H. Auden, "Musée des Beax Arts"
    • William Carlos Williams, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"
  • In our Google Classroom post a brief analysis that addresses the following questions.
    • How do Auden and Williams interpret Brueghel's painting similarly or differently?
    • Discuss how they use different ekphrastic strategies to support their interpretation.
  • This is due by midnight on Wednesday.

• Homework:
  • Read and annotate the following paintings by Bruegel:
    • "The Peasant Dance"
    • "The Wedding Dance"
  • Read and annotate "The Dance" by William Carlos Williams

Thursday, September 3

• Synchronous class, via Zoom:
  • Discuss
    • "The Peasant Dance"
    • "The Wedding Dance"
    • "The Dance" by William Carlos Williams
  • Introduction to Imagism
  • "A Retrospect" and "A Few Don'ts" by Ezra Pound
  • "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams

• Homework: Reverse Ekphasis
  • Read the following Imagist poems:
    • "Oread" by H.D.
    • "Sea Rose" by H.D.
    • "The Broken Fountain" by Amy Lowell
    • "The Pike" by Amy Lowell
    • "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
  • Make a painting, drawing, collage, comic, GIF, short video, or some other form of visual art that is inspired by and seeks to capture the poem. Upload in/with a Google Doc or Slides and offer a brief explanation (1-paragraph) of how your piece interprets the poem. Be sure to include the title of the poem you're referencing in the file you turn in. This is due before class on Tuesday, September 8.