"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" is a poem by one of the foremost figures of 20th-century American poetry, William Carlos Williams, first published in Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems in 1962. The poem is a work of ekphrasis—writing about a piece of visual art—and is part of a cycle of 10 poems inspired by the paintings of 16th-century artist Pieter Bruegel (or Brueghel) the Elder. Both Bruegel's painting and this poem depict the death of Icarus, the mythological figure who died after flying too close to the sun, in a rather unusual way: in both works, Icarus's death—caused by a fall from the sky after the wax holding his artificial wings together melted—is hardly a blip on the radar of the nearby townspeople, whose attention is turned instead toward the rhythms of daily life. Tragedy is thus presented as a question of perspective, something that depends on how close one is (literally and emotionally) to the event in question.

• Read the full text of “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

• “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Summary

• “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Themes

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    Life, Suffering, and Perspective

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-21

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

  • Lines 1-3

    According to Brueghel ...
    ... it was spring

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-5

    a farmer was ...
    ... his field

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 6-8

    the whole pageantry ...
    ... awake tingling

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-12

    near ...
    ... with itself

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-15

    sweating in the ...
    ... the wings' wax

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-21

    unsignificantly ...
    ... Icarus drowning

    

    

    

    

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• “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Symbols

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    The Farmer

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-5: “a farmer was ploughing / his field”

• “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “farmer,” “ploughing”
    • Line 5: “field”
    • Line 6: “pageantry”
    • Line 13: “sweating,” “sun”
    • Line 15: “wings' wax”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-21

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “Brueghel”
    • Line 2: “fell”
    • Line 4: “farmer,” “ploughing”
    • Line 5: “his field”
    • Line 6: “whole pageantry”
    • Line 10: “edge,” “sea”
    • Line 11: “concerned”
    • Line 12: “itself”
    • Line 13: “sweating,” “sun”
    • Line 15: “wings' wax”
    • Line 16: “unsignificantly”
    • Line 17: “coast”
    • Line 19: “splash quite unnoticed”
    • Line 20: “this”
    • Line 21: “Icarus”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “fell / it”
    • Lines 4-5: “ploughing / his”
    • Lines 6-7: “pageantry / of”
    • Lines 7-8: “was / awake”
    • Lines 8-10: “tingling / near / the”
    • Lines 11-12: “concerned / with”
    • Lines 12-13: “itself / sweating”
    • Lines 13-14: “sun / that”
    • Lines 14-15: “melted / the”
    • Lines 15-17: “wax / unsignificantly / off”
    • Lines 17-18: “coast / there”
    • Lines 18-19: “was / a”
    • Lines 20-21: “was / Icarus”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 6: “the whole pageantry”
    • Lines 7-12: “of the year was / awake tingling / near / the edge of the sea / concerned / with itself”
    • Line 13: “sweating in the sun”

  • Onomatopoeia

    

    

    

    

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    Where onomatopoeia appears in the poem:

    • Line 19: “splash”

• “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Brueghel
  • Icarus
  • Ploughing
  • Pageantry
  • The wings's wax
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “According to Brueghel”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Speaker

• “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

• More “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Painting Analyzed — A short discussion about the original artwork. 

    • More About Bruegel — A short film about the great painter.  

    • Williams's Life Story — A valuable resource on Williams's life and work from the Poetry Foundation. 

    • The Painting Itself — Check out the famous painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder that inspired the poem. Can you spot Icarus?

    • Auden's Take on the same painting — Check out LitCharts analysis of a different ekphrastic poem that focuses on the same painting— Musée des Beaux Arts time by W.H. Auden. 

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by William Carlos Williams

    • Raleigh Was Right

    • Spring and All (By the road to the contagious hospital)

    • The Red Wheelbarrow

    • The Widow's Lament in Springtime

    • This Is Just To Say

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