Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Pieter Brueghel's painting tricks the observer. The viewer is first drawn left, where a red-shirted farmer and his horse, plowing a hill, descend into shadows. The eyes then wander …show more content…
Auden and Williams poems are written in completely different styles and have there own strengths and weaknesses, but what is not easily known is that both these poems have one strong similarity. In each of the poems there is no mention to the myth character Icarus, which Brueghel's painting, describes until near the end of each poem. In a way this action tricks the readers and observers and might confuse them as well by not mentioning the point of the poems or illustrating the scene more clear. As illustrated in the painting the figure of Icarus drowning is hidden in the far right bottom corner of the picture. An observer would not notice the figure at first just as a reader would not realize that the poems were written about the Icarus myth until the end.
Poems are a way to express feelings that are not easily expressed. Poems can be written about anything or anyone. Poems however can be written in different styles and methods. Auden and Williams are prime examples of this, for instance the way they can both take the same image to inspire them but right in completely different ways. Auden's poem is the stronger of the two in mirroring the image he saw in Brueghel's painting. Auden made sure to use his subtle