Verses on an Angry Sea | Ekphrasis Series

The word ekphrasis, or ecphrasis, comes from the Greek for the written description of a work of art. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. – Wikipedia

This is the third poem in the Ekphrasis series of poetry. In the aforementioned series, I compose poems on my favorite art works. Here, I choose a very vivid painting by the painter Andreas Achenbach and try to capture the sentiments of one of his famous paintings which goes by the name of Storm at Sea off the Norwegian Coast, 1837. This painting is painted in the style of the famous Romanticism artist Caspar David Friedrich and vividly captures the wrath of the majestic sea.

If there is any painting that you would like me to write about, I am open to your suggestions. Thanks!

Mighty waves lash out at the craggy shore,
strong gusts bend trees against their will,
giant cliffs loom over the restless waters,
the tide is menacing and nothing is still!

Loud and thunderous, the skies rage on,
violent is the storm and cold is the breeze,
streaks of lightning strike the highest rock
when small pieces fall into unsettling seas.

Sunlight has abandoned all hours of day,
the boats overturn with shattered masts,
massive waves weather the bare rock face,
the cliffs are sprayed with rain-filled blasts.

When Poseidon unleashes his deadly wrath,
deep darkness descends and shuns all light;
rising and falling against the rugged shore,
the dark waves break into dazzling white.

Billowing gray clouds amass over the seas,
severing the coast from the warmth of day;
swelling waves approach with frantic haste,
devouring mammoth rocks along its way.

The earth trembles and the heaven shakes,
unnerving the waves of the troubled seas;
terrible is the wrath of the surging tide,
crushing sail-boats and uprooting trees!

© Copyright: Leah Chrestien. September 2023.  The post Verses on angry sea | Poetry | Ekphrasis Series first appeared on The Ecstatic Storyteller. The author reserves the right to the content. No reproduction of content in any form is permitted without the prior consent of the author.