Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

William Carlos Williams’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” is an ekphrastic poem that describes a painting attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Elder to reflect on the themes of The Tension Between Myth and Reality, The Transience of Human Experience, and The Power of Nature. The very first words of the poem, “According to Brueghel” (Line 1) call attention the poem’s intimate relationship with the visual artwork and establish the authority behind the poem. Though the myth of Icarus originated in ancient Greece and featured in many ancient and modern works of literature and art, including Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 CE), the poem remains primarily interested in Brueghel’s idiosyncratic interpretation of the famous myth. At the same time, it is telling that the poem is an incomplete description of Brueghel’s painting. For example, Williams does not speak at all of the activity along the coastline, the shepherd with his sheep in the pasture, the fisherman casting his net, or the several ships unfurling their sails as they head out to sea. Williams’s description is sparing—focusing on the farmer and the fallen man—seeking to convey meaning rather than recreate exactly everything in the visual image.