19
Starry Night ........................................... Q2/Poetry
Ekphrasis
Starry Night is a poem that tells a story of a man that helped another man observe the night sky. The genesis of this ekphrastic poem came after observing the masterpiece of Vincent Van Gogh, “Starry Night”. This piece evolved significantly since it was first written. At first, my idea was to write a short story with the same purpose, however something on it was not good, so I changed it into a poem. Another way the poem evolved was in quarter four. I submitted this piece to Sin Fronteras, so the magazine's team helped me improve it. My teacher suggested to delete the last stanza and include the ideas on it into a single verse, which I did. I wanted the poem to relate with what Van Gogh was feeling when he was painting his artwork. I also added more specific details about how that sky looked. As an author, I was able to catch the weaknesses of my piece and correct them, such as the part where it is described how the sad man felt. These changes affected the piece significantly because the genre changed completely from prose to poetry, which makes a stronger connection with the real painting. In general, I feel very satisfied with this piece. I believe that I did a good job with the flow of ideas and was able to fully accomplish the main purpose. I think this piece is one of the most creative and fun ones to write down. My favorite part of the poem and the one that shows a strength can be found on the last stanza, “I whispered in his ear/'There are people up there who understand you.'/For the first time, he seemed eager/He leaned forward and said/'It’s that starry night that we must glorify.'” I like how the dialogue sums up the poem and also how I added the title of Van Gogh’s painting. A weakness of this piece is the rhyming because sometimes it sounds off and forced. An area for further improvement will be adding more specific details, with
rhetorical figures to describe the sky.
6