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Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Summary & Analysisby William Carlos Williams
Question about this poem? Have a question about this poem? Have a specific question about this poem? Have a specific question about this poem? Have a specific question about this poem? A LitCharts expert can help. A LitCharts expert can help. A LitCharts expert can help. A LitCharts expert can help. A LitCharts expert can help. Ask us Ask us Ask a question Ask a question Ask a question "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" is a poem by one of the foremost figures of 20th-century American poetry, William Carlos Williams, first published in Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems in 1962. The poem is a work of ekphrasis—writing about a piece of visual art—and is part of a cycle of 10 poems inspired by the paintings of 16th-century artist Pieter Bruegel (or Brueghel) the Elder. Both Bruegel's painting and this poem depict the death of Icarus, the mythological figure who died after flying too close to the sun, in a rather unusual way: in both works, Icarus's death—caused by a fall from the sky after the wax holding his artificial wings together melted—is hardly a blip on the radar of the nearby townspeople, whose attention is turned instead toward the rhythms of daily life. Tragedy is thus presented as a question of perspective, something that depends on how close one is (literally and emotionally) to the event in question.
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Landscape with the Fall of Icarus 1According to Brueghel 2when Icarus fell 3it was spring 4a farmer was ploughing 5his field 6the whole pageantry 7of the year was 8awake tingling 9near 10the edge of the sea 11concerned 12with itself 13sweating in the sun 14that melted 15the wings' wax 16unsignificantly 17off the coast 18there was 19a splash quite unnoticed 20this was 21Icarus drowning Lines 3-4It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed Everything you need |