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Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus (poem)




The poem, as indicated by the title, touches upon the greek tradgedy of Icarus, the story in which Icarus, the son of Daedalus, took flight from prison wearing wings made from wax and feathers, unheeding of his father's wishes that he not fly too close to the sun, he did just that and melted his way to a feathery demise, drowning in the sea.

''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



From Collected Poems: 1939-1962, Volume II by William Carlos Williams, published by New Directions Publishing Corp. © 1962 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15828

If you would like to know more, go to the page http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/williams/icarus.htm