Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

959 words 4 pages
Myths explain our circumstances in the world and the universe. A prime example of this is the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Pieter Brueghel painted a picture decrypting the moment of Icarus fall from the heavens. And the two poets William Carlos Williams and W. H. Auden each wrote a poem based on Brueghel's painting, both of which developed a deep meaningful message to the reader. Diction, connotation, and denotation are all used to help describe the emotions and tragedies that Brueghel's painting portrays. These poems are written based on the myth of Icarus.
Pieter Brueghel's painting tricks the observer. The viewer is first drawn left, where a red-shirted farmer and his horse, plowing a hill, descend into shadows. The eyes then wander
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An example of this is the fact that the first stanza of the poem has no mention of Icarus whatsoever, which exemplifies how the human emotion to something as big as a person dying can be ignored during the routine events of a person's day.
Auden and Williams poems are written in completely different styles and have there own strengths and weaknesses, but what is not easily known is that both these poems have one strong similarity. In each of the poems there is no mention to the myth character Icarus, which Brueghel's painting, describes until near the end of each poem. In a way this action tricks the readers and observers and might confuse them as well by not mentioning the point of the poems or illustrating the scene more clear. As illustrated in the painting the figure of Icarus drowning is hidden in the far right bottom corner of the picture. An observer would not notice the figure at first just as a reader would not realize that the poems were written about the Icarus myth until the end.
Poems are a way to express feelings that are not easily expressed. Poems can be written about anything or anyone. Poems however can be written in different styles and methods. Auden and Williams are prime examples of this, for instance the way they can both take the same image to inspire them but right in completely different ways. Auden's poem is the stronger of the two in mirroring the image he saw in Brueghel's painting. Auden made sure to use his subtle


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