A Conversation with Leonardo (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Ciardi
- First Published: 1974
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Memory, Art or artists, Communication, Dreams, God, Painting or painters, Renaissance, Drawing
The Poem
“A Conversation with Leonardo” is a brief poem in free verse, its forty-five lines divided into fifteen three-line stanzas. Speaking in the first person, the poet recalls one “stew of a night” he dreamed of conversing with Leonardo da Vinci, the great Renaissance artist, perhaps because his own “spread-eagled” body recalled the artist’s famous drawing that illustrated this position.
Once the narrator falls asleep, Leonardo, attempting to re-create his drawing with the narrator as the living model, pounces and draws a circle around him. The endeavor...
[The entire page is 1536 words long]
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