Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

William Carlos Williams

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Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was an American novelist and essayist and a poet associated closely with the modernist movement. A prolific writer, Williams won the National Book Award as well as the Pulitzer Prize. Williams’s experimental style pushed the boundaries of modern poetry and his focus on the everyday separated him from those poets whom he felt were simply extending European culture and tradition rather than challenging outdated ideas. This poem was directly inspired by Bruegel’s painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. As you read the poem, take note of how Williams offers a specific interpretation of the painting and then turns that into a poetic reflection.

According to Brueghel

when Icarus fell

it was spring

321

a farmer was ploughing

5 his field

the whole pageantry

of the year was

awake tingling

near

10 the edge of the sea

concerned

with itself

sweating in the sun

that melted

15 the wings’ wax

unsignificantly

off the coast

there was

a splash quite unnoticed

20 this was

Icarus drowning

seeing connections

Here is a second painting of the Icarus myth, created by Dutch painter Ferdinand Bol almost one hundred years after Bruegel’s painting.

Compare and contrast this depiction of the Icarus myth to Bruegel’s (p. 319). How does each painting reflect a different interpretation of the significance of that myth? Base your response on the details you observe. If Auden and Williams wrote poems about this painting, how would their poems have to change?

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Ferdinand Bol, Fall of Icarus, c. 16th century. Oil on canvas. Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp, Belgium.
Scala/Art Resource, NY

322

Understanding and Interpreting

  1. The poem describes the scene as taking place in the spring. What effect does placing Icarus’s death in spring have on the ideas in the poem as a whole?

  2. In mythology, Icarus’s drowning is a tragic and significant event. However, in this poem, Icarus’s death is reduced to a “splash quite unnoticed” (l. 19). What ideas about mythology as a whole does Williams offer by minimizing the significance of this event?

  3. What is the speaker’s conclusion about Bruegel’s interpretation of the fall of Icarus?

Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure

  1. Each line in this poem is composed of no more than four words, with a couple of lines made up of only a single word. How does this brevity contribute to the ideas in the poem?

  2. Even though there are line breaks, the ideas often are carried from one stanza to the next. What effect does this stylistic choice have on the poem as a whole?

  3. In line 16, the speaker uses the word “unsignificantly.” How does this word vary in meaning from “insignificantly,” and what is the effect of using this invented word?

Connecting, Arguing, and Extending

  1. The inspiration for this poem was Bruegel’s painting of the same name, shown on page 319. The myth dates back to around 800 B.C., and the painting was completed in 1558, separating these two pieces by over two thousand years. Williams’s poem presents a specific interpretation of that more recent painting, rather than focusing on the ancient myth. How might the poet’s choice to focus on the painting itself rather than the myth make it more relevant to a modern audience? In what ways might he be adding his artistic voice to an ongoing conversation between artists by focusing on the painting?

  2. Using details from the poem and your understanding of the myth of Icarus, write a response in which you identify the argument Williams is making regarding Bruegel’s painting. Then explain whether or not you agree with Williams’s assertion and why.

  3. This poem is a direct response to a painting. Think of a painting with which you are familiar, or go online and find a painting that interests you. Write a poem about the painting you have selected. Then, write a commentary about what interested you about the piece, what your poem tried to capture about the painting, and what you learned from the process.