The painting is by Bruegel. If anyone needs a memory jolt from Greek mythology of who Icarus is, he is the boy who strapped on a pair of wings, flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and he plunged to his death.
It's a great painting--an event that for Icarus, his father (who was also flying but didn't get too close to the sun), and anyone else who loved Icarus changed that day. But Icarus is just a little pair of legs in a splash of water. It's all about perspective--life goes on, the farmer and his horse need to get going, the sheep need to be herded...but there is Icarus, dying...Death in the midst of life, and the daily motions of life at that. Turn that on the cogs in your head.
And...here's William Carlos Williams' poem on the event/painting, just to round out National Poetry Month nicely.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment