Sample Response: Both W. H. Auden and William Carlos Williams wrote ekphrastic poems about Pieter
Brueghel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. Both
poems point out that Icarus's drowning is ignored or goes
unnoticed. Williams's poem uses short groups of three
lines and an objective tone. Auden's poem uses longer
lines and more description, and it refers to ideas and
images outside of the painting. Williams provides a
matter-of-fact account of what happens in the painting,
while Auden connects the painting to the overall idea of
suffering
What did you include in your response? Check all that
apply.
similarities between the poems
differences between the poems
connections to the painting within the poems

no

explanation:

first of all the mood needs to be defined: it is obviously a mood of deceitful relief and serenity. why? because the cape horn is one of the most violent maritime regions of earth and although it has been left behind, it is a personification of ahab’s delirium and the fact that the end of the passage speaks about it about being “hidden” but “raving” immediately conveys the feeling the calm is not permanent but fleeting.

furthermore, the oxymoron “mild stun'sails” is the first instance of such feeling as the adjective “mild” is associated with “stunned” underscoring the fleeting nature of this “tranquil” moment. and the contrasts keep piling up, with the opposition between “dark den” and “blessed light and air” to end with the final conclusion that leaves the reader with the uneasy knowledge that this is just a reprieve.

would cloning of animals be allowed to prevent extinction?