The Count On Counts
It is true that we who push the boundaries to be noticed, only can hope
that the footprints are not in sand, rather, in concrete, so that all may
remember us.
We explore the scenery along with Icarus, and yet, the poem seems not to even be about Icarus. The poem is the journey, the scenery, the day rather than a story. However, it is at the final line of William’s poem that we realize the true focus of the poem: “Icarus drowning”. William reveals to us his initial deceit, showing us that the poem was a descent rather than a flight – each stanza pulling the reader from the sky, and bringing us quite literally to the ending: death. This little surprise at the end mirrors Icarus’ own supposed surprise.
The Greek mythological figure Icarus is best known for his tragic and life-ending plunge
into the Aegean Sea (Oxford English Dictionary: “Icarus”). Icarus’s refusal to heed his father’s
advice led to his demise. The infamous myth symbolizes “ambitious or presumptuous acts which
end in failure or ruin” (OED: “Icarian”). Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s four hundred and fortyseven
year old painting, “Landscape With the Fall of Icarus,” immortalizes this historically
infamous expiration. “Landscape With the Fall of Icarus” also inspired “Musee des Beaux Arts”:
a poem by W. H. Auden that elaborates on Icarus’s death. Auden’s poem is split into two distinct
sections: the first is a description of Brueghel’s wisdom, and the second is a description of
Brueghel’s painting. Yet, a pervading theme of tragedy and disaster infiltrates both sections of
Auden’s works. Throughout both the painting and the poem, a constant juxtaposition and
reflection of life and death is observed. The intersection of “Landscape With the Fall of Icarus”
and “Musee des Beaux Arts” illustrates the fact that death is an unavoidable facet of life and that
repose is no more significant than...
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