'the sun shone/as it had to'

Bruegel's masterpiece, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," has captivated viewers for centuries. The painting depicts a vast landscape where life continues seemingly oblivious to the tragic fall of Icarus from the sky.

Auden writes "the sun shone / as it had to" to illustrate that one instance of human suffering does not change the rest of the world. No matter the tragedy and suffering that happens, the sun, the world, the people, and the animals, continue on.

Are we free to choose how we react to the world, or are our responses predetermined, making us no different from unfeeling celestial bodies?

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But 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.

Musee des Beaux Arts W. H. Auden

We live in a fast-paced world, bombarded with information and constantly on the go. This constant busyness can make it easy to become desensitized to the struggles of others. The people in the landscape are caught up in their daily routines, seemingly unaware of the drama unfolding above them. Icarus's fall is a momentary event, a blip in the grand scheme of things. The ship sails on, the farmer ploughs his field, life continues.

The Choice is Ours

The question "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" poses to us is this: Will we be like the oblivious figures in the painting, or will we choose empathy and connection?

The answer lies within each of us.