Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Summary

The poem is an ekphrastic description of the famous Bruegel painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus." It opens by referencing Bruegel (spelled Brueghel by Williams; this guide will use the more common spelling) as the source for the description that follows. The speaker remarks that Icarus fell in springtime. The speaker then describes, for two stanzas, a farmer plowing his fields as they teem with new life. Following this, the speaker reveals the farmer's relative isolation at this moment and makes a reference to the sun melting Icarus's wings as it is making the farmer sweat. In the final two stanzas, the speaker shows Icarus drowning, while remarking on his predicament's unimportance to the farmer.