It was perhaps unfair on Housman to toss in his comment without context. (And as I think most folks, know I am a HUGE Housman fan.) This is in a selection of letters to his brother, Laurence, and is in a series of comments on some of Laurence's own poems that were sent to him:
"Poems on pictures seem to me an illegitimate genre, but Autumn Leves is a favourable specimen. . ."
Of course, Housman is capable of being crotchety for its own sake, and of leavening his praise with a sharp remark. But despite his razor-like candor with his brother about his poems, his comments are usually also generous in their way.
And by this comment, I do not think he is dismissing all ekphrasitc poetry outright (certainly not Homer or Virgil, of course). (Nor is Keat's urn a "picture"--nor is it, as far as anyone has been able to find, I believe--a single urn.)
He is quite willing to admit a "favourable specimen" of poems on picutres when he sees it. But as far as lyric poetry goes, I think he considers it something hybrid and not "pure" poetic utterence. He seems to simply be expressing a suspicion of it. And I think there is something to this concern.
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