Pieter Brueghel, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (c. 1558) |
Musee des Beaux Arts [1940] - W. H. Auden (1907-1973)
About suffering they were never wrong, In Brueghel's Icarus,for instance: how everything turns away |
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus [1962] According to Brueghel a farmer was ploughing of the year was the edge of the sea sweating in the sun unsignificantly a splash quite unnoticed |
Icarus [1989] - Edward Field (1924- ) Showed that anything more spectacular had occurred "That nice Mr. Hicks" the neighbors called him, And nightly Icarus probes his wound And now dreamt of his fall, the tragic fall of the hero; But now rides commuter trains, Serves on various committees, And wishes he had drowned. |
Hans Bol , Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (c. 1565) |
To A Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph [1962] - Anne Sexton (1928-1974)
Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on, |
Topics for writing about the Icarus myth and the poems and paintings it has inspired:
1] In classical Greek times, people understood the Icarus myth to be a warning about hubris, one definition for which meant elevating oneself to the place of the gods, in other words, to fancy oneself to be like a god. The gods did not like this sort of arrogance from mortals and would punish them for their hubris, therefore, “keeping them in their place.” Icarus receives his consequences for literally “flying in the face of the gods” when Helios (the sun god) melts the wax on his wings so that Poseidon (the sea god) consumes him. In more modern times the story connotes flying in the face of “authority” or overstepping one’s bounds. What examples in your own life or in the real world could this myth be compared to either in its historical context or in the contemporary context?
2] Brueghel’s painting and these four poems about it show people going on with their business without taking note of Icarus’s dire circumstance as he plunges to his death. Have you ever found out later about someone who was in dire circumstances that you weren’t aware of until it was too late? Tell about what happened and what you wish you had done if you had known.
3] Which of the four poems tells, retells or reuses the myth of Icarus the best in your opinion? Support your opinion by stating what happens in that poem, and compare that to what happens to him or how he is referred to in the others.
4] In Flemish artist Hans Bol’s (1534-1593) painting, people are watching the fall and they are frightened. In its historical context (where hubris means “flying in the face of the gods”), how is his interpretation different from Breughel’s depiction, and why would the onlookers be frightened? Describe what happens in the two paintings and discuss the different meanings that are depicted.Return to Mr. D.'s teaching home page
Return to Mr. D.s Eng 111 home page