Art and poetry have always been connected. Poets often find inspiration in paintings, sculptures, and other visual forms. These poems do more than describe—they interpret, respond, and expand upon what the eye sees. This article explores 15 poems that focus on art. Each poem reveals something unique about how artists and poets share creative ground. Some poems are ekphrastic, directly responding to artworks. Others use art as metaphor, symbol, or emotional mirror.
15 Poems That Got Way Too Obsessed with Art
1. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats
John Keats’s famous ode is one of the best examples of poetry inspired by art. In this poem, Keats reflects on the frozen images painted on an ancient urn. He admires the silence and timelessness of the figures, comparing them to the fleeting experiences of real life.
Excerpt:
“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time…”
He contemplates the contrast between eternal beauty and human temporality. The final lines—”Beauty is truth, truth beauty”—suggest that the truth found in art can be enough for the soul.
2. “The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton
This poem is a direct response to Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting. Sexton’s language is stormy and vivid, mirroring the swirls and emotional intensity of the image.
Excerpt:
“The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.”
The poem not only describes the painting but captures the artist’s inner turmoil, mirroring Sexton’s own emotional struggles.
3. “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams
Though not about a specific painting, this poem reflects the mindset of an artist. Williams, a physician and poet, believed in the power of everyday objects. He turns a simple wheelbarrow into a subject of deep visual focus.
Full poem:
“so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.”
This poem shows that art exists not only in museums but also in daily life, in simple details seen clearly.
4. “The Dance” by William Carlos Williams
In this poem, Williams is inspired by Pieter Bruegel’s painting The Kermess. The poem captures the movement, rhythm, and joy of dancing figures in a village scene.
Excerpt:
“In Brueghel’s great picture, The Kermess,
the dancers go round, they go round and
around…”
Williams turns the lively scene into a rhythmic poem that mimics the spinning dance. He blurs the line between visual and verbal movement.
5. “In My Craft or Sullen Art” by Dylan Thomas
Thomas reflects on the work of the poet and the quiet, intense labor that goes into art. He speaks of working not for fame or gain, but for love and understanding.
Excerpt:
“I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages…”
He reminds us that art, whether visual or verbal, often happens in solitude, meant for unseen and deeply felt connection.
6. “Vincent” by Don McLean (Lyric-Poem)
Though a song, the lyrics of Vincent are poetic and serve as a tribute to van Gogh. The imagery and emotion convey the pain and brilliance of the artist.
Excerpt:
“Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray…”
It is an elegy, a lament, and a celebration of art and the artist’s soul.
7. “Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl” by Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss’s collection takes its name from a Rembrandt painting. Her poems often engage with art through reflections on mortality, identity, and perception.
Excerpt:
“Everything I know about painting I learned from looking at paintings.
Everything I know about death I learned from paintings, too.”
Seuss blurs the boundaries between the painter, the painting, and the observer. The visual becomes visceral.
8. “Voyage of the Sable Venus” by Robin Coste Lewis
This long poem is crafted entirely from museum descriptions of artworks featuring Black women. The poem reshapes the colonial gaze and highlights the historical objectification within Western art.
Excerpt:
“A Standing Venus, holding her hair
A Seated Negro Girl
A Kneeling Slave with Fruit…”
Lewis uses poetic structure to critique, reclaim, and rewrite how art sees—and fails to see—Black femininity.
9. “River Babble” by Eugene Lee-Hamilton
Lee-Hamilton’s poem reflects on personal suffering and the soothing role of nature and creativity. Paralyzed for much of his life, the poet uses imagination as an escape.
Excerpt:
“And still the river babbles,
Though my limbs lie still in gloom,
The music of its ripples
Is the voice that breaks my tomb.”
Art and poetry here act as a form of resurrection, allowing life to continue beyond the body’s limits.
10. “Death Sets a Thing Significant” by Emily Dickinson
In this poem, Dickinson reflects on the emotional weight that objects hold after death. She refers to simple handmade items that gain meaning once the maker is gone.
Excerpt:
“Death sets a Thing significant
The Eye had hurried by
Except a perished Creature
Entreat us tenderly…”
She sees art not just as painting, but as embroidery, sketches, and other small acts of creation—now made sacred by memory.
11. “The Artist” by Rainer Maria Rilke
Rilke’s work often meditates on artistic practice. In “The Artist,” he explores the isolation, spiritual hunger, and quiet mastery required of true creation.
Excerpt:
“You must give birth to your images.
They are the future waiting to be born.”
Rilke reminds us that art does not only reflect reality—it creates it.
12. “Musee des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden
Auden’s poem responds to the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, likely by Bruegel. The poem observes how suffering often occurs unnoticed.
Excerpt:
“About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position…”
The fall of Icarus becomes a quiet background detail. Auden points out that art, like life, often hides deep pain behind ordinary scenes.
13. “Why I Am Not a Painter” by Frank O’Hara
Frank O’Hara reflects on the differences between painting and poetry in this casual, conversational poem. He starts with a desire to be a painter but explores how words create a different kind of art.
Excerpt:
“I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not.”
The poem is playful, yet insightful—exploring how creativity moves in different mediums but with shared instincts.
14. “Archaic Torso of Apollo” by Rainer Maria Rilke
This poem describes a ruined statue of Apollo. Despite its missing head, Rilke feels the statue’s energy and presence. It ends with a striking command.
Excerpt:
“…for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.”
Art, Rilke suggests, has the power to transform us. Even broken art can demand action and growth from the viewer.
15. “Self-Portrait” by Adam Zagajewski
Zagajewski reflects on his own artistic journey, considering what it means to be both subject and creator.
Excerpt:
“Between the computer, a pencil, and a typewriter
half my day passes. One day it will be half a century.”
The poem is gentle and reflective. It treats poetry as a lifelong practice, an internal sketch in progress.
Conclusion
Poetry about art reveals how deeply the two mediums connect. Visual art gives poets images to explore. Poetry gives artists new meaning and context. Together, they create a dialogue that transcends time and space.
Whether it’s Keats pondering eternity in ancient pottery, or Sexton hearing sorrow in the stars of van Gogh’s sky, these poets don’t just look at art—they live in it.
Each of the fifteen poems in this article shows us that the act of observing, creating, and reflecting is a universal form of expression. Art and poetry are not separate disciplines but rather mirrors, echoing each other with each thoughtful stroke or line.
Let us continue to read, to look, and to listen—to let art and poetry open the world a little wider.
