Sample Response: Both W. H. Auden and William Carlos Williams wrote ekphrastic poems about Pieter
Brueghel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. Both
poems point out that Icarus's drowning is ignored or goes
unnoticed. Williams's poem uses short groups of three
lines and an objective tone. Auden's poem uses longer
lines and more description, and it refers to ideas and
images outside of the painting. Williams provides a
matter-of-fact account of what happens in the painting,
while Auden connects the painting to the overall idea of
suffering
What did you include in your response? Check all that
apply.
similarities between the poems
differences between the poems
connections to the painting within the poems