Marchal Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase and X.J. Kennedy's poem, which follows, by the same title is to illustrate how ekphrasis is used in poetry.Nude Descending a Staircase
Toe upon toe, a snowing flesh,
A gold of lemon, root and rind,
She sifts in sunlight down the stairs
With nothing on. Nor on her mind.
We spy beneath the banister
A constant thresh of thigh on thigh--
Her lips imprint the swinging air
That parts to let her parts go by.
One-woman waterfall, she wears
Her slow descent like a long cape
And pausing, on the final stair
Collects her motions into shape.
As stated previously ekphrasis, which was created by the ancient Greeks, uses one art form to respond to another, so as to envision the thing described as if it were physically present. In some cases, the subject never really existed, making the ekphrastic description a demonstration of both the creative imagination and the skill of the writer.
Murray's The Stranger in the Photo was the exemplar for how you would write your own response to the photo you were asked to bring into class. If you did not complete the assignment, please check it out, so you know what is expected in the following assignment. (Any not received have a zero; so at least get it in for 50 points)
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Everyone needs a picture of him or herself that is at least five-years old. (This request went out a 10 days ago.)
Using the essay by Donald Murray as a general model, look at your photo. Take time to study facial expression, the body position and gestures. What is the context? Project yourself back to that moment. Where were in your life? What were your expectations- for the moment? for the long run? Maybe your long run was only a month away. Compare this to where you are now. This is not a goal oriented essay, as in what would I like to be when I grow up. Ask yourself honestly, who you were then? To make it interesting, use vivid imagery and other figurative language devices such as metaphors or similes. Make the reader connect with this photo, much as Murray did. Careful with the tone. Murray offers no regrets, rather he creates a world into which the reader may step. This should be about 500 words. Grading: language conventions / sense / beautifully and articulately expressed. Make this a masterpiece. This is the last major writing assignment.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Everyone needs a picture of him or herself that is at least five-years old. (This request went out a 10 days ago.)
Using the essay by Donald Murray as a general model, look at your photo. Take time to study facial expression, the body position and gestures. What is the context? Project yourself back to that moment. Where were in your life? What were your expectations- for the moment? for the long run? Maybe your long run was only a month away. Compare this to where you are now. This is not a goal oriented essay, as in what would I like to be when I grow up. Ask yourself honestly, who you were then? To make it interesting, use vivid imagery and other figurative language devices such as metaphors or similes. Make the reader connect with this photo, much as Murray did. Careful with the tone. Murray offers no regrets, rather he creates a world into which the reader may step. This should be about 500 words. Grading: language conventions / sense / beautifully and articulately expressed. Make this a masterpiece. This is the last major writing assignment.
This is due by Tuesday, May 5.
Beginning last unit on Wednesday. :)
Beginning last unit on Wednesday. :)
Samiya Coney
ReplyDeleteThis picture takes place during the year 2001. Every weekend I would go over my grandma’s house to spend the night. I was my grandma’s first girl, so she spoiled me and would take a lot of pictures of me. My smile portrays a little girl being coaxed by her grandma to smile. I remember I had to try to stay still in order to not fall over in her heels. I use to love to play dress up in her clothes. I would wear my grandma’s floppy hats and push my pudgy toes in her pointed and sensible shoes. I would stand in the mirror and look at myself, and I’d imagine myself dressing like this all the time. I would elegantly apply perfume to my neck and wear lipstick. I was young and happy then; I don’t remember ever experiencing the cruel game life likes to play. I knew what love was; that picture shows genuine love and happiness, but I never knew what it was like for it to be taken from me. For love to be erased from my smile, and replaced with a grimace of pain and turmoil of love being stolen. Never will she understand that forgotten love. I look back at this picture and I imagine that special boy of mine. What was he doing at that exact moment in time? Was he wondering one day what the pain of a bullet would feel like? Probably not. But would this girl ever be able to look at me and wonder why I wonder what the pain of a bullet feels like. Did he die instantly or did he have to endure that pain? Would this little girl continue to smile at me as I cried over my future of a life without him? Of course she will. She is innocent, she is happy, she is playful, she is one of the brightest little girls I ever met. I will let her continue to live in that moment, singing those Jungle Book tunes and dancing with Baloo and Mowgli. I will continue letting that little boy live his life somewhere else, but that little girl will never know where he is, or if she will ever meet him. Let her live ignorant. Ignorant Bliss. She deserves a moment in time for that. I wish I could join her. But for now I have to continue getting older and carrying on a life without that boy I love, a life that will be filled with many more losses. But one thing that the little girl will eventually learn is to live. Live for the moment and love those who are in it and continue to love them when their gone.