“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” a poem by the 20th century modernist and imagist poet William Carlos Williams refers to Pieter Bruegel's painting of the same name and describes the disconsolate tragedy of Icarus, the son of Daedalus in an old Greek myth. In this myth, Daedalus, a great architect and inventor, creates wings made out of feathers and wax to enable the escape of him and his son, who were being kept prisoner in a tall tower by a king that he had previously worked for. This invention works, and they manage to escape, but Icarus, who was disregarding his father’s cautions and playing around, flying too high, falls into the sea because the wax that holds the feathers together melted and drowns.
William Carlos Williams’ poem however does not tell this entire story. Instead, it focuses on describing what was illustrated in Pieter Bruegel’s painting. In Bruegel’s painting, a farmer who is ploughing his field, and a boy who is watching over his sheep is the first thing that catches the observers eye. Icarus can be seen in the lower right corner of the painting, as a part of the background. Like Bruegel, Williams has chosen not to make the death of Icarus the major part of his work, and has settled to mentioning it at the beginning and end of the poem. He has preferred to take the reader on a journey through the day, and the scenery that was most probably visible to Icarus as he drifted through the sky. Actually, the poem isn’t even about Icarus, as can be understood from the title, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” which would most likely be something like “The Fall of Icarus” if the poem was about him.
“Out, Out—” by Robert Frost, an early 20th century poet, has a rather similar theme to “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” although both of these poems portray different events. “Out, Out—” tells the story of a young boy, who dies a sad death after accidentally cutting off his hand with a buzz-saw. The boy, still a child at heart, is living the life of a grown man. With only half an hour free time a day to himself, to enjoy his childhood, he works hard, taking on tasks that are not appropriate for his young age. Forced to be mature and grown, the boy knows that he will be of no use without a hand, and the idea that he will be incomplete and unable to work for the rest of his life causes his death. The poem focuses on people's reactions to death.
These two poems have one notably important similarity. Both of these poems narrate that a person’s suffering and failure will be unimportant to another person or will go unnoticed. In “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” nobody acknowledges the boy who falls into the sea out of the sky, splashes around trying to save himself and then dies. It is unknown whether the farmer and any other people at the scene of the event didn’t see or hear Icarus falling, or if they just decided that it was insignificant and not worthy of their time. In “Out, Out—,” the people around the boy acknowledge his death, yet decide to go on with their daily lives, since they are still alive, and that is pretty much all that matters to them. Thus, the death of the young boy is irrelevant to the lives of others, so it is unimportant.
William Carlos Williams and Robert Frost have used different types of structure to communicate the same theme. William Carlos Williams’ poem consists of seven stanzas, made up of three lines each, and is written in free verse. The use of punctuation is at a minimum, with only one period at the end of the poem. Enjambment has been employed in the poem, perhaps to create the effect of a flight, or descent; with each stanza, the reader is slowly descending in the sky, and is brought to death, the inevitable ending. The vocabulary in the poem is quite simple, and the tone is calm and objective, with no emotions being conveyed. Contrast and words with sensory appeal have been used to enrich the poem. Words like “splash” and “tingling” appeal to the senses of sound, sight and touch while are also onomatopoeic words. The contrast between life and death can be seen from the word “awake,” used to describe liveliness and merriness that comes with spring, and “Icarus drowning,” which implies that Icarus will be asleep forever, starting from that moment.
“Out, Out—” differs from “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” in structure. Robert Frost’s poem is made up of only one stanza, and thirty four lines. The poem is written in blank verse using iambic pentameter. Frost uses many poetic devices throughout the poem. Personification is used to describe the buzz-saw. The lines “And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, as it ran light, or had to bear a load,” describe the buzz-saw, talking as if the saw was a person which had to carry something. The words “snarled and rattled” are repeated several times, to create the image of the saw moving back and forth in the readers mind, and to help the reader imagine exactly how the machine works. Words that contradict, like “rueful” and “laugh” are used to create an image of the boys pain. The vocabulary of the poem is simple, yet powerful words have been used, like “outcry.” Imagery is an important part of the poem, as Frost takes the time to set up the setting, as can be seen from the line “Five mountain ranges one behind the other under the sunset far into Vermont.” Unlike William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost uses several punctuation marks in his poem, including dashes, colons, quotation marks, and exclamation points. “Out, Out—” also includes dialog, something that is not seen in most poems. The poem starts out with a three line long sentence, and ends with a one line poem. The sentences get shorter as the poem progresses and the life in the young boy slowly drains out.
“Out, Out--” employs realistic imagery and the personification of a buzz saw to describe how life goes on after the death of a loved one, while also subtly stating that human are selfish creatures that only have concern for themselves. “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” states pretty much the same thing, that what is a tragedy to one person will often be a matter of complete indifference to the rest of the world using imagery and contrast.
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