Poems & Paintings

Do you love poetry, paintings, or perhaps both? Have you found that the more you attended to one of these forms, the more you understood about the other? This course begins with the assumption that the arts are in dialogue with each other. Our time in class will be rooted in group discussion and dialogue as well. Each week, we will look at several pairings of classic poems and enduring visual artworks. Sometimes these sets will include poems directly inspired by paintings or vice versa. Sometimes we will juxtapose paintings and poems that have no direct documentary connection but explore similar emotional and psychological terrains - love, grief, shame, joy, revelation, lostness, uncertainty, melodrama, secrets, the world of dreams.