The speaker begins with observations of suffering and people’s reactions to it or lack of. “How [suffering] takes place / While someone else is eating or opening a window or just / walking dully along,” suggests the monotonous and bland routine of life that people fall into. This reveals the speaker’s questioning and contemplative attitude towards suffering and how and why people can go on like nothing is happening behind closed doors or out of earshot. The speaker references the well-known story of Icarus, son of Daedalus, who flew close to the sun with homemade waxed wings. The wings melted, and he fell to his death in the sea. The speaker explains that even if someone in a field nearby heard a cry and a splash they would not bother to
