Ekphrasis — from the Greek — “ek” out, and “phrasis” speak, refers to verbal responses to visual stimuli, which propose to “speak out” for them. This class will examine the rhetorical device of ekphrasis as it has come to bear on word and image studies, and in particular, we will read poetry that speaks out for, against, in collaboration, and sometimes all of these at once, visual works of art. Descriptive, didactic, deceitful, disarming: from Homer’s shield of Achilles to Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts,” this class considers the relationship between words and images and the ways in which we respond to their coupling.