orm of a poem in which the poet describes and reflects upon a work of visual art. The poem describes the famous painting ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the Dutch painter of the 16th century. The title of William’s poem and its first line is a direct allusion to this work of Bruegel.
Themes of Landscape with the Fall of Icarus:
The painting describes the story of Icarus from Ovid’s Metamorphosis and thus, the poem in itself is an allusion to Ovid’s Metamorphosis and the Greek myth of Icarus. Icarus was the son of Daedalus. Icarus and his father were exiled and imprisoned in Crete. Daedalus was a miraculous sculptor. He created artificial wings of wax and gave power of flying to those. He offered those wings to his son so that he may escape and bring help. However, he warned Icarus that though the ability to fly will tempt him to achieve greater heights, he must resist going near the sun as it will melt his wings. He further requested him to remain away from the sea because if his wings get wet, he won’t be able to fly. Icarus promised to keep these requests in mind and flew away. However, as he reached the sky, he was exhilarated by the sudden freedom and the ability to fly. Nonchalantly, he kept going high and high and forgot that he must not go near the sun. As he kept going up, the heat started waning out his wax feathers and they started melting. Icarus was unable to manage those melting wings. Furthermore, he was so high that he didn’t notice that he is flying just above the sea. As a result of the melting of his feathers, he fell down into the sea, and that further worsen the predicament because the wet feathers were useless. Thus, Icarus fell and drowned in the sea for not heading any of his father’s pieces of advice. He drowned because of his attitude of indifference towards his father’s requests and this is the main theme of William’s poem. The poet takes the reference to the mythological character Icarus to talk about the human tendency to indifference. When Icarus fell from the sky, it was spring and a farmer was plowing his field. Similarly, the edge of the sea was concerned with itself. Furthermore, the sun too had no pity upon Icarus. Nobody liked to hear the splash of Icarus drowning. A farmer sees Icarus drowning but he has no interest in that as he keeps continuing his work in the field. The poem establishes a theme of growing selfishness and individualism among mankind. As Icarus falls and dies, it makes no difference.
Structure of the Poem:
It is a short poem with seven stanzas of three lines each. There is no set rhyming scheme and the poem is written in free verse with extensive use of enjambment. Williams has used imagery, allusion, alliteration, consonance, metaphor, symbolism, and Onomatopoeia.
Summary of Landscape with the Fall of Icarus:
1st Stanza (Lines 1-3)
“According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring”
The poet declares that his poem is an Ekphrasis of Pieter Bruguel’s painting depicting the fall of Icarus. The poet alludes to Brueghel’s painting and says that the picture shows that Icarus fell during Spring. There is end random rhyming in ‘Brueghel’ and ‘fell.’
2nd Stanza (Lines 4-6)
“a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry”
In the second stanza, the poet confirms that it was certainly the season of spring as shown in the picture. Spring is associated with youth, life, birth, and natural beauty. It is generally the time when farmers prepare their fields for new crops. The poet says that the picture shows a farmer ploughing his field which suggests that it is a depiction of spring. Furthermore, the whole ‘pageantry’ the whole of the beautiful picture suggests it is spring.
3rd Stanza (Lines 7-9)
“of the year was
awake tingling
near”
The poet continues to describe the spring season shown in the picture and says that the picture is holistic and it shows the liveliness of spring. In the 8th line, the poet used the Juxtaposition of iamb (awake) and torchee (tingling). Furthermore, the end sound (k) of awake, and starting sound (t) of tingling are consonant stops.
4th Stanza (Lines 10-12)
“the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself”
In the fourth stanza, the poet develops the theme of his poem and suggests that while such a major incident was happening, Icarus was falling, the whole landscape up to the sea was unaware and unconcerned, and the whole edge or shore of the sea was concerned by itself. The farmer was busy ploughing, and the shepherd was gazing at the sky indifferent to the fall of Icarus. The fishermen were busy with fish, everybody was concerned with their own jobs, and nobody cared for the falling man.
5th Stanza (Lines 13-15)
“sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax”
While everyone was busy with their jobs, Icarus suffered a jolt as the heat of the sun overpowered his will to fly and his wings of wax melt down. The whole of the actions shown in the picture suggests it was a hot spring day. The farmer was sweating, and so were the fishermen and the shepherd. It was so hot that the wings of wax began to melt.
6th Stanza (Lines 16-18)
“unsignificantly
off the coast
there was”
No doubt the incidence of the fall of Icarus was an important one but when it happened, as shown in the figure, nobody was concerned. Icarus was insignificant and so was his fall. Everybody was busy with their own business. While the painting is titled the fall of Icarus which it certainly depicts, it depicts a whole range of other actions too, and in the pageantry, the mere fall of Icarus appears insignificant. It appears that Icarus neglected his father’s pieces of advice, and his fall was also ignored by everyone else. Icarus got carried away by his whims and he suffered since nobody cared for his fall, men continue to fall because of their irrational whims.
7th Stanza (Lines 9-21)
“a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning”
As Icarus fell on the seabed, it must have caused the sound of splash but it disturbed no one, it remained unnoticed, and that was Icarus drowning. And since it remained unnoticed, nobody learned anything from his fall. As if his fall achieved nothing for humankind which continues to fall.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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