For this exercise everyone needs a print of a famous painting. Art postcards work well. Here is a website with 100 of the greatest paintings of all time: http://remliel.com/2016/07/08/100-greatest-paintings-of-all-time, but you can choose any painting you like.

Take a few minutes to look at the painting and then answer these questions about it.

Each question should have a one or two line answer:

• What is the first detail you notice?
• What time of day is it and what does this mean?
• What is the main color(s)? What does it make you think of?
• What do you hear in the picture?
• What does it sound like?
• What is happening in the picture? And why?
• There is a detail in the picture you haven’t noticed until now. Write a line or two about it.
• If the painter had moved a fraction to the right, what would also be included in the scene?
• Bring someone (yourself?) into the poem in some way.

Write a ten to fifteen line poem. In those lines, try to repeat a word or phrase from somewhere near the beginning of the poem.

Use vivid, concrete detail with strong nouns and verbs. Avoid vague and abstract word like beautiful, ugly, good, bad, love, etc.

Be sure to attach a copy of your picture to your assignment submission.

This activity is due by the end of the day on Tuesday, December 5.