Summary
The farmer sweats in the sun as the speaker references Icarus once again. The speaker then shifts focus back to Icarus, noting his relative unimportance to this narrative. In the final stanza, he describes Icarus drowning, without detail or emphasis.
Analysis
In the fifth stanza there is a small change in emphasis. The speaker still concentrates on the farmer as he is "sweating in the sun" but also notes that this sun is the same one "that melted / the wings' wax." This refers, of course, to the melting of Icarus's wax wings. These wings were a gift from Icarus's father Daedalus, who warned him not to fly too close to the sun as they would melt, and also not to fly too close to the water because he would fall in and drown. The way Williams casually mentions this detail makes it clear that he has not made this story a priority in the text. At the same time, by noting that the same sun that makes the farmer sweat has melted Icarus's wings, the speaker is showing that Icarus and the farmer exist in the same physical space. Nevertheless, the farmer still takes no notice of Icarus. Enjambment plays a particularly significant role in this sequence of stanzas as they allow for a slow move back to Icarus's story.
The sixth stanza functions as a kind of segue between the two sections, setting up the poem's conclusion ("unsignificantly / off the coast / there was") and Icarus's demise at sea. The use of the word "unsignificantly" makes clear that the speaker doesn't find this part of the story to be important. This idea is crucial, given the weight and aesthetic beauty the speaker has given to the farmer's story. The last line dovetails with the final stanza as it reads "there was / a splash quite unnoticed." The word "unnoticed" works in a similar fashion to "unsignificantly," continuing to downplay the relative importance of the scene that is coming. Even the word "splash" does not seem applicable to a mythic tale, but Williams uses it to push this point further. The final two lines ("this was / Icarus drowning") show the titular "fall of Icarus" but do so in a way that completely strips it of narrative priority. In a construction that mirrors the opening, the final lines don't portray Icarus actively struggling in the water, but rather (through the use of passive voice) show him as a minor image in the larger painting. The main theme of these final stanzas is Icarus's lack of importance in the eyes of the farmer. Consumed in his work, the farmer has no time for Icarus's story and doesn't even perceive him. This moment reveals an essential part of both the poem and the painting: the farmer is the main character, and his story and life are given greater weight than the legend of Icarus.
The poem is about perspective. In making the farmer the focus of the poem, Williams both reflects the content of the Bruegel painting while also highlighting the impact of vantage points on a scene. The farmer is shown as being absorbed in his meaningful work and remains oblivious to the titanic fall of Icarus. In the poem, Williams is able to expand on the original project of Bruegel's painting, showing how the literal shift in point of view is actually reflective of the way the dominance of a narrative can be fundamentally altered. Williams also tackles Bruegel's interest in investing importance in scenes of everyday life by zeroing in on the farmer's work and pulling away from the famous myth of Icarus.
