Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel, The Elder (c. 1525-1530-1596)
On the 8th of November we will present "Landscape With the Fall of Icarus," by William Carlos Williams. We thus invite you to think about the following topics:
- William Carlos Williams and his search for a fresh, raw American idiom and rhythm;
- Poetry and painting as "interchangeable mediums;"
- The modernist poet as a fragile, indecisive, unsure author.
To introduce you the subject, here is the Greek myth that inspired both the painter and the poet:
Icarus was the son of Daedalus (an ingenious and creative man, known by his manual labors) who constructed the labyrinth (at the behest of Minos, king of Crete) where the Minotaur was imprisoned. But since Daedalus had helped the daughter of Minos to run away with her lover, he and his son were both imprisoned in their own labyrinth as a punishment. In order to escape, Daedalus invented a pair of wings made by feathers of different birds and beeswax. He advised Icarus not to fly too high since the wax could melt, nor too low for the sea could wet them. But the boy got dazzled by the sun and, feeling attracted by it, he flew too high, his wings melted, he fell and died.
Félix Ribeiro
Francisco Gaspar
Inês Pereira
