Landscape With the Fall of Icarus Painting Visual Art Summary

Andrew has a keen interest in all aspects of verse and writes extensively on the subject. His poems are published online and in print.

'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus' by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1560?) Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

William Carlos Williams and a Summary of 'Mural with the Fall of Icarus'

'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus' is a curt, costless verse poem by William Carlos Williams. Information technology is an example of ecphrasis, a Greek word meaning a literary description of a piece of work of art, in this case Bruegel's painting of the same championship.

The painting, based on the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus (meet below), shows a ploughman, shepherd, fisherman and sailors all at their everyday work, oblivious to the drowning of Icarus who has fallen from the sky having got too near the sun on his wax and feather wings.

In seven slim stanzas, with those short, clipped lines, Williams gives the states his idea of the painting and story and the message independent inside. His poem is in stark contrast to other poets influenced by this classic scene.

W.H. Auden, for example, gave us 'Musee des Beaux Arts', Michael Hamburger has 'Lines on Brueghel's Icarus', whilst Jack Gilbert took a more personal view with 'Declining and Flying'.

They're all worth reading and studying because they throw calorie-free on Williams's poem, which is succinct, matter-of-fact and challenging in its course and syntax. Williams, the doctor-poet of Rutherford, New Jersey, preferred to etch poetry in his own local way.

He wrote to fellow poet Richard Eberhart five/14/53:

'I am as you lot know, a stickler for the normal contour of phrase which is characteristic of the language as nosotros speak information technology. Information technology gives to a poem a distinction which information technology tin get in no other manner.'

From the first stanza to the final, there is a detachment in the conversational tone—it's as if the speaker, having viewed the painting, is now relaying information to a third political party.

In some respects, this poem defective in detailed description is a poor representation of a rich and unusual scene. There's no mention of the shepherd, the fisherman or the sailors on their sleek passing send. The seascape with coastal town and cliffs is ignored.

But Williams produces a bare-boned plain sketch of a poem that is a basic, no-nonsense interpretation of Bruegel's painting. The brusque lines information technology could be said increase the reader's focus. Line breaks become punctuation, the reader having to negotiate pauses and pace. This makes for an intriguing experience.

Icarus suffered because he ignored Daedalus's (his father's) pre-flight communication. The son fell and drowned because his wax wings melted when he flew as well loftier. This consequence passed by unnoticed past the farmer, by everyone. In dissimilarity, the reader has to slow down to fully appreciate the subtleties of each stanza.

Williams commencement published this verse form in The Hudson Review, Leap 1960, in Pictures of Breughel, one of ten short poems based on the artist's classic paintings.

'Mural with the Fall of Icarus' by William Carlos Williams

According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring

a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry

Scroll to Continue

Read More From Owlcation

of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself

sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax

unsignificantly
off the declension
there was

a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning

Stanza-by-Stanza Analysis of 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus'

A seven-stanza poem, each with 3 lines, that sits on the page brusque and slim. From kickoff glance, at that place is no punctuation or regular rhyme or formal shape, and then we tin can say it is free verse.

Line breaks are all important—they act as punctuation—and might claiming the reader when it comes to pauses, measure out and overall flow.

First Stanza

From the title the reader tin work out that there is a basic epitome in forepart of them, depicting land and some kind of fall. They would demand previous cognition of both Brueghel and Icarus to fully grasp what the stanza is saying.

The outset and 2d lines, in mentioning both Brueghel (the Flemish painter) and Icarus (the son of Daedalus, from Greek mythology) introduce the reader into a specific domain of fine art history, that of story inspiring an image.

Brueghel'due south classic painting is the source of the speaker's sketchy voice. The lack of punctuation encourages menstruation, on into the adjacent line with minimum fuss and hesitation.

Six syllables in the first line, followed by five, then three . . . a falling of sorts. An adventitious rhyme too - Brueghel/cruel—surely unintended, but binding nevertheless. The third line leaves the reader suspended in the flavour of spring.

Second Stanza

Another random rhyme—jump/ploughing—sees the all-important farmer busy with his plough (notation the British English spelling). One of the fundamental actions, refreshing the soil, preparing it for seed. Contrast this, one of the oldest traditions of the farming life, with the fall of Icarus, a 1-off, bizarre event, an exotic flight gone wrong.

And that word pageantry in the third line—meaning either mere bear witness or elaborate brandish—leads directly on into the third stanza, with only a slight pause.

Third Stanza

There'due south a noticeable suspension for the reader in this stanza. Annotation the line catastrophe was which some would argue necessitates further pause as awake follows and tingling holds on until near appears, the only line of a unmarried word.

The movement and rhythm alters—the reader tends to quicken with of the year which is anapaestic (dadaDUM), and then ascension. In the second line the iamb awake is juxtaposed with the trochee tingling, producing what is known as a consonantal finish - the sounds k meeting t.

Perhaps, with that third line of the lonely near, the moment of truth arises for Icarus. The melting of the wax begins?

Quaternary Stanza

And so the vivid pageantry goes on at the body of water's edge, in its own bubble we might say (concerned/with itself)—the ploughman-farmer concentrating on the globe, the shepherd looking upwards into the heaven, at what exactly is unclear, and the seated fisherman down below is casting with a rod as sailors become about their maritime jobs on the passing ship, sails total, fix for a voyage or most to enter the nearby harbour.

Other boats and ships are in the vicinity; 1 or two birds fly past, another plumper bird sits in a small tree. A hawk, a partridge?

Fifth Stanza

Again, enjambment rules—no punctuation between stanzas or lines ways that the reader has to carefully approximate the length of intermission as they progress down the poem.

Information technology must be the pageantry, the whole of the goings-on, that is sweating in the sunday on what looks like a hot twenty-four hours. And so hot in fact that the wax on the wings of Icarus melted equally he got closer to the sun. This is a direct reference to the mythology—Daedulus, the male parent and inventor, had warned his son not to fly too low or besides high, but to stay at a moderate top. Unfortunately, Icarus was headstrong and disobeyed the wise words, with catastrophic results.

Sixth Stanza

Arguably the most important give-and-take in the whole poem . . . unsignificantly . . . fills the line with six syllables. The wax may have melted and sent Icarus to his decease only in the context of the painting this was a non-upshot. No-i saw him fall, or were too pre-occupied with daily business to notice the tragedy.

Is this a consummate failure? Or had Icarus achieved something wonderful by soaring and so high in the first place? He just went a flake as well far, got carried abroad on a thermal.

Or perchance his actions were meant to spite his father, who gave him explicit instructions and prior alert. Icarus was too brazen and proud. He bit off more than he could chew and was then spat out himself.

And that concluding line of the stanza . . . at that place was is so plain and hopeful of a substantive.

Seventh Stanza

And the noun is splash—simple. Icarus fell into the sea, there was a splash, big deal. He drowned. So what? Nobody saw it, heard information technology, knew of it. Even the fisherman close by didn't seem to notation the drowning at all. He but holds his rod, waiting for a fish to bite. This is more of import.

The terminal stanza wraps up the story of the painting, bringing closure from the starting time stanza when Icarus roughshod.

The Greek Myth of Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus, the Athenian, well known equally inventor and architect, was exiled on the island of Crete nether King Minos. It was here that Daedalus was ordered to design a labyrinth for the king's beast-son, the Minotaur.

Later many years, during which he had a son Icarus, he became restless and longed to escape from his depressive surroundings. Only Minos controlled both land and sea.

Daedalus decided to brand wings for himself and his son from feathers, thread and bee's wax. They fitted onto the shoulders and were like the wings of large birds.

Before the maiden flight Daedalus warned his son non to get too low for fear of moisture, or to go too high in instance the sun scorched the wings. He was to follow his begetter and non deviate.

Daedalus launched himself into the air and looked back to see if Icarus was obeying his command. Possibly every bit they flew, a fisherman or ploughman or shepherd might see them and call back of them as gods.

But after a while Icarus, loving his newly plant skill of flight, was drawn to the higher sky and flew ever nearer the sun. Disaster followed equally the wax melted on the wings and the feathers came loose.

Icarus called out for his father as he plummeted into the ocean and was drowned. Daedalus, distraught, saw the feathers on the surface where his son had perished. He retrieved the body and cached information technology on an island tomb. The island they called Icaria, the sea the Icarian.

From Metamorphoses Book VIII 183-235 by Ovid (8AD).

Sources

• 'Ekphrastic reimaginings of Landscape with the Fall of Icarus' | The DS Project
• David Cole, University of Wisconsin, 'Mural with the Autumn of Icarus', article, 2010
• (PDF) 'On Reading Poems: Visual & Exact Icons in William Carlos Williams' «Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus»' (researchgate.net) Irene R. Fairley, Sept 1981
• Poesy: An Introduction to Prosody. Charles O. Hartman. Google Books.
• Internet Archive Search: creator:"Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963"

© 2021 Andrew Spacey

linappich.blogspot.com

Source: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Landscape-with-the-Fall-of-Icarus-by-William-Carlos-Williams

Share this post