John Hollander wrote an instructive book, The Gazer's Spirit, 'poems speaking to silent works of art' -- which categorizes 'ecphrasis' by instances in which, variously: (a) we know a particular object is being confronted; (b) we know precisely what the object is; and (c) the actual object described is available for us to consider. When (c) is the case, it is 'actual ekphrasis.' When neither (a) nor (b) obtain, and we may be dealing with a fictional work of art, it is 'notional ekphrasis' -- so, Margaret - I guess the Larkin is an instance of 'notional' ekphrasis.
-- FrankText
On the First Good Day, I'm going to go back to Sharon Passmore's post about how to italicize /:
[This message has been edited by FOsen (edited August 02, 2003).]
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