In three to five sentences, compare and contrast the poems' descriptions of the painting. Use details to support your answer.

Answer:

Both poems describe Brueghel’s painting as showing Icarus’s fall unnoticed by the surrounding world. Williams emphasizes the ordinary spring landscape, including the farmer plowing and the sun melting the wax, and ends with the small, unnoticed splash of Icarus drowning. Auden also describes the ploughman, the sun, the water, and the ship, but focuses more broadly on how people and animals continue their routine lives while suffering occurs. Thus, Williams presents the event in a detached, understated way, while Auden uses it to make a larger point about human indifference to suffering.