Well-Educated Mind Poetry Reading List discussion

First of all, this poem is about the painting The Fall of Icarus by Bruegel. I love this painting!

In the forefront of the painting, a farmer is looking down while ploughing his field; behind him, a shepherd, looking up into the sky, is herding his sheep; and further back and below, a fisherman is working at the water's edge.

A large area of the painting is of the sea, and near the shore, as sometimes needs to be pointed out, are the legs of Icarus kicking about. He has just fallen into the sea after his wings of wax melted while he was trying to fly too close to the sun.

Sadly, no one notices because, like the farmer, the shepherd, and the fisherman, everyone is busy working. Therefore, Icarus drowns in the sea.

Williams tells how Bruegel painted the myth of Icarus in spring, when the

"whole pageantry

of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself"

and

"unsignificantly
off the coast
there was

a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning."

That's pretty much all he says about it, and I think it is funny. A very observant explanation of the painting. No one noticed. Poor Icarus.