1 How to join together—each Plath poem with each Tarot card? How to come in from one side—the reading of each Ariel poem. How to come in from the other side—the images of the Tarot cards? How to meld/morph/segue the poetry & image together simultaneously—into a meaningful narrative?
2 This was the composition problem for me—and it still is. Ekphrastic composition via Plath’s Ariel. Each Ariel-Tarot combination is unique—depending on the reader-writer. For example, The Applicant Tarot Card—I’ve interpreted as an Emperor poem with Ted Hughes as the Boss and myself as the applicant. It’s totally unique—and probably only applies to me & my lifestyle. Ekphrastically tho, I’m "telling the story of" somebody like me who is applying to be somebody (an outsider) in a powerful society (straight, hetero) who’s acceptance of me is rather problematic. Something I’m used to—something perhaps like Plath felt?
3 Another example, “The Cut” tarot card—paired with my own version of Plath’s “Nine Female Figures” collage. Plath’s cubist-collage poetry is something I’ve already discussed in detail here in Melba and with others on Snarke. That and her “Nine Female Figures” (1950-51) and “Two Women Reading” (1950-51).
4 Ekphrasis is a ‘rhetorical’ device—that Plath uses. One can hear it—during her BBC reading of Ariel. It’s not just static & imagistic—like Pound with faces like petals on a bough at a train station. Pound’s ‘ideogrammic’ method—is more like a snapshot. Plath’s imagery—is more filmic; it’s something more narrative & story-like—both cinematic as well as cartoonish. Satirical—and one might even say even dystopian-critical of the Modernist male agenda. As Plath dishes the Modernist male persona with her cosmopolitan, chic, female imagination—she shares with the reader/listener her experiences with her father & husband. For me, the BBC reading—is the Voice of Ariel. Ecstatically ekphrasis—visceral and vivaciously alive. Dramatic—and angry. Ditching Ted & her father—in favor of something uniquely relevant to herself & career as a poet/artist.
“Stasis in darkness
Then the substanceless blue
Pour of tor and distances”
5 I can see how Plath’s early collage artworks of the ‘50s preoccupied her with de Chirico surrealism and collage cubism. All how all of a sudden there was this ekphrastic gestalt into her poetry. Ariel became quick, surreal & ultra-imagistic. Imho Plath was thinking/feeling/seeing/composing ekphrastically.
6 Here is some lit crit on the ekphrastic method:
“Ekphrasis has been considered generally to be a rhetorical device in which one medium of art tries to relate to another medium by defining and describing its essence and form, and in doing so, relate more directly to the audience, through its illuminative liveliness. A descriptive work of prose or poetry, a film, or even a photograph may thus highlight through its rhetorical vividness what is happening, or what is shown in, say, any of the visual arts, and in doing so, may enhance the original art and so take on a life of its own through its brilliant description. One example is a painting of a sculpture: the painting is "telling the story of" the sculpture, and so becoming a storyteller, as well as a story (work of art) itself. Virtually any type of artistic media may be the actor of, or subject of ekphrasis. One may not always be able, for example, to make an accurate sculpture of a book to retell the story in an authentic way; yet if it's the spirit of the book that we are more concerned about, it certainly can be conveyed by virtually any medium – which in itself is challenging and interesting – and thereby enhance the artistic impact of the original book through synergy. This, of course, controversially assumes that books have isolatable, essential spirits. In this way, a painting may represent a sculpture, and vice versa; a poem portray a picture; a sculpture depict a heroine of a novel; in fact, given the right circumstances, any art may describe any other art, especially if a rhetorical element, standing for the sentiments of the artist when s/he created her/his work, is present. For instance, the distorted faces in a crowd in a painting depicting an original work of art, a sullen countenance on the face of a sculpture representing a historical figure, or a film showing particularly dark aspects of neo-Gothic architecture, are all examples of ekphrasis.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekphrasis
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