Myth - Art - Poetry

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Myth - Art - Poetry

• Myths inspiration for poetry and visual art for
  millennia
• Example
• The Story of Icarus....

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Anthony Van Dyke
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Carlo Saraceni
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Herbert Draper
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Odilon Redon

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Marc Chagall
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Kent Lew
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Henri Matisse
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Pieter Brueghel
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Landscape with the Fall of Icarus William Carlos
Williams According to Brueghelwhen Icarus
fellit was spring a farmer was ploughinghis
fieldthe whole pageantry of the year wasawake
tinglingwith itself sweating in the sunthat
meltedthe wings' wax unsignificantlyoff the
coastthere was a splash quite unnoticedthis
wasIcarus drowning
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Musee des Beaux Arts W. H. Auden About suffering
they were never wrong,The old Masters how well
they understoodIts human position how it takes
placeWhile someone else is eating or opening a
window or just walking dully alongHow, when the
aged are reverently, passionately waitingFor the
miraculous birth, there always must beChildren
who did not specially want it to happen,
skatingOn a pond at the edge of the woodThey
never forgotThat even the dreadful martyrdom
must run its courseAnyhow in a corner, some
untidy spotWhere the dogs go on with their doggy
life and the torturer's horseScratches its
innocent behind on a tree. In Breughel's Icarus,
for instance how everything turns awayQuite
leisurely from the disaster the ploughman
mayHave heard the splash, the forsaken cry,But
for him it was not an important failure the sun
shoneAs it had to on the white legs disappearing
into the greenWater, and the expensive delicate
ship that must have seenSomething amazing, a boy
falling out of the sky,Had somewhere to get to
and sailed calmly on.
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To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph Anne
Sexton Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky
wings on,testing that strange little tug at his
shoulder blade,and think of that first flawless
moment over the lawnof the labyrinth. Think of
the difference it made!There below are the
trees, as awkward as camelsand here are the
shocked starlings pumping past and think of
innocent Icarus who is doing quite well.Larger
than a sail, over the fog and the blast of the
plushy ocean, he goes. Admire his wings!Feel the
fire at his neck and see how casuallyhe glances
up and is caught, wondrously tunnelinginto that
hot eye. Who cares that he fell back to the
sea?See him acclaiming the sun and come plunging
downwhile his sensible daddy goes straight into
town.
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Where to start

• Generally, its a good idea to start with the
  myths themselves once you find one that you
  like, youll need to find out whether there are
  poems and visual artworks based on that myth
  (please note that poetry and visual art needs to
  be published no amateur hour material).
• If you select a myth and find there is no poetry
  and/or no visual art based on that myth, go back
  and select another one (you should have no
  trouble finding material for most of the major
  myths).