Comparing Poems 'Daedalus And Icarus'

In the short story, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, an old man, or an angel, crashes into the yard of a young couple on a rainy night. There he stays for the next few years, enduring the cruelty of the townspeople, until his wings heal and he is finally able to fly away (272-276). In the Daedalus - Icarus myth, a father and son must also endure suffering, this time at the hands of a King Minos of Crete. Locked up in the King’s Labyrinth, they escape using wings make of wax and feathers. Unfortunately, the son, Icarus, drowns in the process (Snodgrass 139-141). Artist Pieter Brueghel then paints this death scene in his work, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus in 1558. Centuries later in 1963, William Carlos Williams writes his own perspective of this painting and the unfortunate incident in his poem of the same title, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. All three characters, the Old Man/Angel, Daedalus, and Icarus, suffer torments of the natural world and from the people within it. Each work presents the idea that the world is largely indifferent to this suffering through depictions of the character’s environment, the people they encounter, and finally through the implied attitudes of some of the authors themselves.

The poem “Icarus” by Edward Field explores the downfall of a man named Icarus from glory to mediocrity. He crossed the sea with huge wings to escape prison, but he flew too close to the sun, which melted his wings, causing him to fall into the ocean. Field uses several literary devices, such as connotation, alliteration, metonymy, and repetition, to adapt the Icarus myth to a contemporary setting.

In the two Greek myths, “Phaethon” and “Daedalus and Icarus”, the main characters go through a major trial that enforces their pride, which eventually leads to their death. The literary elements in these two myths include characters, imagery, and conflict. These elements help the author express the bright scenes, understandable reasonings, and unfortunate downfalls. The lesson in both tales is equivalent, as the theme is: A prideful disregard of the warning from those who are older and wiser can quickly lead to disastrous consequences. However, the way this present this lesson is what makes it different from each other. The main characters --being Phaethon, Daedalus, Icarus-- imagery, and conflict all work together to form the theme.

Myths explain our circumstances in the world and the universe. A prime example of this is the myth of Icarus and Daedalus. Pieter Brueghel painted a picture decrypting the moment of Icarus fall from the heavens. And the two poets William Carlos Williams and W. H. Auden each wrote a poem based on Brueghel's painting, both of which developed a deep meaningful message to the reader. Diction, connotation, and denotation are all used to help describe the emotions and tragedies that Brueghel's painting portrays. These poems are written based on the myth of Icarus.

In the poem “Icarus” by Edward Field is alluding to the myth of Icarus and Daedalus which is set in a contemporary setting. The poem takes a spin on the myth were instead of Icarus drowning, he is set in today 's world as the fall of the great hero, nothing but an ordinary man. It reveals that Icarus cannot handle being just ordinary and “wishes he had drowned.” (line 30). Through imagery, diction and irony Fields uses a contemporary setting to convey the life of Icarus who is living as a man who once achieved greatness.

W. H. Auden, living during 1907-1973, is a man of class. He loved to visit an art gallery, which was called “Museum of Beautiful Art” (In French: Musee des Beaux Arts). Like T. S. Eliot, he was both an American poet and a British poet. Going back to Auden visiting the art gallery, he stared at this one painting. He stared at it for an extended amount of time, trying to determine what the piece of art meant. The piece of art, which Auden was trying to decode, was called “The Fall of Icarus” (The painter is a man named Brueghel). In Brueghel’s painting, the focus is on Icarus, but you barley notice the boy himself. It is very important to know the story of Daedalus and Icarus to fully understand this painting, poem, and essay. If you do not know the story, then go read it and then come read this to acquire the full grasp of what I am trying to emit out in words. The reason why there is a poem by W. H. Auden, is because when Auden looks at the painting he sees something so profound. So profound, he writes a poem about it. The things he finds so profound is, 1)

The story of Daedalus and Icarus, reflected Ovid’s changing thoughts and morals of his personal life as he undergoes the life changing event of getting exiled by Emperor Augustus, through the characters of the poem.

Many people try to recapture or hold onto their “glory days.” Poets, similarly, try to recapture the “glory days” of classical mythology. In Edward Field’s “Icarus,” he combines the two nicely by adapting Icarus’s heroic fall into the sea into a contemporary setting. By describing Icarus’s tragic life after surviving his fall, the poem focuses on the unacceptably mundane life of modern society. Field uses contrasting imagery to paint the picture of Icarus’s orderly, restrained life against the now-gone “glory days” of Icarus’s great flight, highlighting the powerlessness and painful nostalgia that we all struggle with. In addition, Field’s pitiful and dreary diction also establish a tone of longing and of bittersweet memories, allowing one to place themselves in Icarus’s place and understand his struggle. The contemporary issues and connotations throughout “Icarus” blend the classic myth and the modern feeling with skill, infusing the comparison with meaning.

In Ovid’s “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus”, Ovid uses characterization to make the characters realistic and vivid and to reveal plot through the characters’ actions, thoughts, speech and physical appearance. Without the characterization of Daedalus and Icarus, understanding “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus” completely is not possible. Ovid hides important pieces of the plot in the text, and wants the readers to reveal the true meaning of the story by looking into the characteristics of the main characters, Daedalus and Icarus. With the view of their wants and responsibilities, the story becomes clear to the reader and the purpose of this story in a poem is revealed.

“The Flight of Icarus” is about Daedalus and his son, Icarus, trying to escape a labyrinth . Daedalus made wings from feathers and wax to escape. Daedaus told Icarus to no go to high into the sky or too low but then Icarus went to high up and the wax started melting. Icarus didn't pay attention to Daedalus about staying in a moderate flight zone, and then he fell in the ocean and drowned. I would encourage you to not take risks, and if you still won't listen then remember what happened to Icarus.

The theme is a tremendously essential part of any poem. The two poems, “Musée des Beaux Arts” and “Waiting for Icarus,” contain similar themes. In “Musée des Beaux Arts” and “Waiting for Icarus” there is a strong theme of abandonment and suffering found throughout both of the poems. In “Musée des Beaux Arts” it is Icarus, the subject of Breughel’s painting, who is being abandoned while drowning in the sea. Auden clearly portrays this when he writes, “In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away / Quite leisurely from the disaster” (lns. 14-15). Auden uses these lines to describe how everyone is ignoring Icarus’ current predicament. Auden examines the disaster even further by stating, “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” (lns. 19-21). Here, Auden is telling his readers that even though Icarus is in pain because he is drowning; life was carrying on anyway, a clear indicator of Auden’s theme of abandonment and suffering. “Waiting for Icarus” also incorporates the theme of abandonment and suffering, although Rukeyser does not depict it as fatally as Auden does. Rukeyser expresses the theme of abandonment in her poem when she writes, “I have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer. / I would have liked to try those wings myself. / It would have been better than this” (lns. 20-22). Here, Rukeyser depicts the persona as someone who has been waiting a long time for her lover to show up and Rukeyser makes it pretty clear that he is not going to. Therefore, Rukeyser shows her readers that the persona has been tragically abandoned by her lover, which evidently causes the persona a great deal of anguish. Auden and Rukeyser both use the theme of abandonment and suffering in their poems in order to show their readers how painful it is to be discarded by the world.

The mythology story about Icarus using his homemade wings to fly to freedom. Icarus and his father are stuck in some sort of prison. With him and his son’s lives on the line, Icarus’s father built two pairs of wings to fly away with. He told his son to wait five minutes after he left so that he could make sure that the wings worked properly and he told Icarus not to fly to high because the wings would melt and if he flew too low, the feathers would get wet. Icarus did listen to his father and he fell to his death. The wings represented flying to freedom.

“The truest characters of ignorance are pride and arrogance. This quote by Samuel Butler is truer than gold in the two greek myths Phaethon and Daedalus and Icarus. The protagonists of both stories boastful,arrogant and prideful natures lead them to their agonizing deaths and downfall. The two myths would be lifeless and stale without the use of of literary elements like conflict,imagery,and and characterization. Conflict shapes the story,Imagery foreshadows and provides color,and characterization develops the characters personalities and behaviors. These elements are how the authors were able to teach the lesson in the theme. The two stories’ main characters, Phaethon and Daedalus and Icarus share the same moral theme of a prideful disregard from those elder and wiser can quickly lead to disastrous consequences,existing thanks to these literary elements.

Around 60 BCE, the ancient Greek writer Diodorus wrote the story of Icarus, in which the son of Daedalus ignored his father’s warnings, and after flying too close to the sun plunged to his death as the wax holding his wings together melted. While the story incorporates themes of human nature and curiosity, it more importantly conveys a lesson of unchecked ambition. Whether it is for wealth or a better future, humans tend to strive for what is best for themselves in life. Unfortunately, unchecked ambition often ends with poor results, as seen in the story of Icarus. Centuries later, ambition remains a prominent theme in literature, and authors have utilized this natural human trait in countless stories and novels. Two authors who do so are Charles Dickens in his book Great Expectations, and M.L. Stedman in The Light Between Oceans. In both novels, unchecked ambition affects different characters negatively.