Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams
After the reference to William Carlos Williams in yesterday’s poem, I went looking for a poem of his to share. I was delighted to find this one about a painting involving Icarus, that was also referenced in Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts.
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Landscape 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
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 coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning
