Inspiration v. Plagiarism: A Historical Example

After reading various articles about the fine line between plagiarism and inspiration, I started thinking about how art has inspired further art throughout history and how this may/may not have changed since the development of the internet. My ponderings led me back to my high school creative writing class an one rather interesting assignment we had: Ekphrastic Poetry.

Before you say “gesundhiet,” let me provide an example. I’m sure at some point in your life or another, you’ve heard the song Vincent by Don McLean, an ode to the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh. The song begins with these lines describing the painting Starry Night:

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

The song continues by describing numerous other works Van Gogh created while simultaneously describing his life struggle for recognition before he killed himself in 1890. This entire song is a wonderful work of Ekphrastic Poetry.

As a general definition, Ekphrasis refers to a work of art that comments on other works of art. It has been around for centuries, one of the early and quintessential examples of this is Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn”. The website Ekphrastic Poetry provides numerous other examples of this written art form as well as the works that inspired them.

So, looking at the Ekphrastic form, it is very clear that this is a type of work that is heavily influenced by other works of art but is clearly not plagiarism. Thinking about this concept in terms of the internet, it allows people to experience such a vast variety of works that they may never be able to see in person. I personally think this is one of the ways the internet can hugely advance creativity: by bringing other influences to the forefront of your understanding and allowing you to explore a broader range of creative works and media. So long as you give credit where credit is due, I see this as a huge advantage today’s artists have over those of previous generations.