W. H. Auden's poem, written after a viewing of the
painting "Fall of Icarus" by Bruegel, is reflective of the nature of man to be
indifferent to the misery of others. For, in this painting there is a "ploughman" who,
as he trudges mechanically behind his horse, pays absolutely no attention to the
drowning Icarus. Likewise, the "delicate ship that must have seen/Something amazing,"
keeps on to its course and sails calmly past.
This
indifference of mankind to an individual's misery is minimalized in the painting by
Bruegel as the drowning Icarus is painted in the corner of the canvas, but the ploughman
is large and in the foreground. The painting also clarifies what Auden means in his
first lines:
About suffering they were never
wrong,
The Old Master: how well they
understood
Its human position; how it takes
place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or
just walking dully
along;
The insignificant and
terribly mundane act of children skating on a pond supercedes for the children the
importance of the celebration of the "miraculous birth" and Christ's dying on the cross,
"the dreadful martyrdom."
No comments:
Post a Comment