PO3 - Lesson: Poetry and Art Connections

Poetry and Art Connections

Throughout this module, we've been putting images of paintings created during the same time periods as the poems we are reading. For instance, we looked at a modernist painting in the lesson about modernist poetry.

In this lesson, we're going to take that concept a step further and start making direct connections between art and poetry. In this activity, we will take a poem and match it with an artwork that was created in the same time period. With this match, we will be looking for both thematic and technical connections.

Art and Poem

Our poem for this example will be an Elizabethan (Renaissance) poem by Sir Phillip Sydney, titled Astrophil and Stella 31: With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies, which was written in 1582. Meanwhile, we will be looking at a painting by the Renaissance artist Titian, titled The Death of Actaeon, which was painted between 1559 and 1575.

The Death of Actaeon by Titian.With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!
How silently, and with how wan a face!
What, may it be that even in heav'nly place
That busy archer his sharp arrows tries!
Sure, if that long-with love-acquainted eyes
Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case,
I read it in thy looks; thy languish'd grace
To me, that feel the like, thy state descries.
Then, ev'n of fellowship, O Moon, tell me,
Is constant love deem'd there but want of wit?
Are beauties there as proud as here they be?
Do they above love to be lov'd, and yet
Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess?
Do they call virtue there ungratefulness?

Sample Analysis

What are some technical and thematic connections between the poem and art?

The most obvious connection between the poem and the painting might be the focus on the imagery of archery and the moonlit sky. In the poem, Sidney writes “That busy archer his sharp arrow tries/What, may it be that even in heav'nly place” and addresses the moon twice: “O, Moon.” In the painting, we see the moonlight in the upper right-hand corner, and then the image of an archer takes up the left side of the image. This imagery is then directly linked to the theme. Both works focus upon frustrated love: in the poem, the poet expresses vexation at his unrequited love, whereas in the painting the myth of the hunter Actaeon who his own dogs kill because he sees the goddess Diana bathing. Also notice the somber, yet soft tones and atmosphere of both the poem and painting. In the poem the questions are frustrating, but never angry are jarring. For example, Sydney concludes with the following four questions that all express the speaker’s confusion about the paradoxical nature of love: 

Is constant love deem'd there but want of wit? 
Are beauties there as proud as here they be? 
Do they above love to be lov'd, and yet 
Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess? 
Do they call virtue there ungratefulness?

Likewise, in the painting, Titian paradoxically conveys a harsh subject matter (i.e. Actaeon being transformed into a deer) without losing the somber yet gentle overtones of the woodland setting. Both poems and The Death of Actaeon focus on the frustrations of unrequited love.

Response Breakdown

So what’s the pattern in the sample analysis? Here is a sentence-by-sentence breakdown.

  1. Start with an obvious connection.
  2. Support the connection with text from the poem and details from the artwork.
  3. Connect both to the theme.
  4. Go into depth with the theme.
  5. Shift to tone and support it.
  6. Support the tone statement in the poem.
  7. Specific comment about poem and tone.  
  8. Continue to support the tone statement with details in the picture.
  9. Conclude with an overall statement of meaning.

Is this the only way to answer the assignment? No, of course not! However, you should be aware of the following basic guidelines:

  • Somewhere focus upon point of comparison through theme. 
  • Focus on specific lines from the poem and details from the painting. 
  • Show depth with your answers. Typically 7-10 sentences are a good guideline. Notice that in the example, there are several compound and complex sentences. If you’ve only included 1-2 sentence answers, you probably haven’t done enough. 

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