Lanscape with the Fall of Icarus

In William Carlos William's poem, he begins in the first stanza by referring to the great Renaissance painter Brughel, when he wrote " According to Brueghel when Icarus fell it was spring". Its clear that analepsis was used, which is a retrospection in order for the author to offer background information about the fall of Icarus. Williams is basing his poem on the fact that the reader has seen "Landscape with the fall of Icarus" by Brueghel in order to make his point. Some more analepsis is used in the second stanza when referring to the ploughing farmer. In facr Williams is educating the reader on the events that are occurring in the landscape until the second to last stanza. He uses the past tense in the first 5 stanzas, showing that he is not talking about the present. This literary device keeps readers on track by citing the source that Williams is basing his poem on. Many readers regularly would now know who Brueghel is and it ensures that they know who and what they are reading about. During the last stanza, Williams talks about Icarus drowning, and this is intersting because it is the first time that Williams speaks in the present progressive form saying "a splash quite unnoticed, this was icarus dowrning". This is the one and only transition that Williams makes bewtween the past, which is Icarus' acension into the skies, and the presence which is Icarus' slow, sad death.