“In Brueghel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
Bur for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.”
That’s Auden. The picture is by my Mum.
Thanks to a wonderful high school English teacher, as soon as I saw that photo those words came into my head.
2 Comments
December 8, 2008 at 9:50 am
Fabulous post.
December 8, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I thought I was being a little indulgent but sometimes one just has to do it.