poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

Line 16 - isn't there a 'heard' missing?

Yes, the first of the double "the"s should have been "heard." Very strange.

Thanks for letting us know.

-- Jough

Please reply me this question, I'm doing an assignment.

The old master is Brugel, the painter of the described picture

notice how saturated with adverbs the first "stanza" is

& also how rhythmically casual (rhymes are there, but no consistent meter); uncharacteristic for Auden

The theme of the poem is the way humans regard suffering with apathy. The ship sees Icarus fall out of the sky and drown in the sea, but "life goes on" and it has to move on too.