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‘The tom-tom of the spirit’

Contemporary poets head to the Louvre
by
April 2025, no. 474

At the Louvre: Poems by 100 contemporary world poets edited by Antoine Caro, Edwin Frank and Donatien Grau

New York Review Books, US$22 pb, 214 pp

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‘The tom-tom of the spirit’

Contemporary poets head to the Louvre
by
April 2025, no. 474

‘Poetry is a speaking picture,’ said Simonides of Keos, and ‘painting a silent poetry’. From ancient Greece until now, these ‘sister arts’ have been frequently conjoined, though it is most often poetry that speaks to or for painting rather than the reverse. We have come to call this interaction ekphrasis (literally, a ‘speaking out’), usually defined as ‘a verbal description of a work of art’. In Classical times it was a school exercise for developing rhetorical skills, but ever since Homer’s elaborate depiction of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad, it has been co-opted by poets, especially during the last century.

At the Louvre: Poems by 100 contemporary world poets

At the Louvre: Poems by 100 contemporary world poets

edited by Antoine Caro, Edwin Frank and Donatien Grau

New York Review Books, US$22 pb, 214 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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