Fall Of Icarus Comparison

I find the most fascinating of ancient writings to be Greek mythology. Writings produced by the early Greeks, in my opinion, even rival modern day literature. Hard to believe considering everything the human race has experienced and endured up to this point. With so many Greek tragedies, my favorite has to be "The Flight of Icarus."

Characters change in stories just like people change in life. In the story “The Flight of Icarus” by Sally Benson and the poem “Icarus’s Flight” by Stephen Dobyns the character Icarus learned to listen to his father. This relates to the theme for the story and poem which is that we should listen to our parents.

To some people, poetry may seem to not be applicable and not entertaining. Poetry is a way to express one’s feelings and ideas and to inspire its readers. To understand poetry, and to get a sense of what the poet is trying to convey, one must analyze the poem to see why and how it is compelling to the reader. In her poem “Eagle Poem” Joy Harjo appealingly writes about the spiritual connection to the circle of life and prayer. The poem “The Street” by Octavio Paz is about life and the choices one makes. In this poem, there is a deeper meaning presented through the theme of isolation, identity, and the choices one makes in life. The last poem I will be analyzing is “Remember” by Joy Harjo which accentuates the importance of nature and where

Suffering is felt by all humans, humans sometimes awknowledge it and other times it’s ignored. In the poem, “Museé des Beaux Arts,” written by W.H. Auden and the painting, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” painted by Pieter Breughel the Elder, Icarus can be seen throughout the two works. In the poem, Auden describes about human suffering and how the elders life differentiate from a child. Moreover, the painting showcases a city’s daily life and how Icarus’s fall does not seem to bother any one. Although these two works use different elements, the author’s both contribute to the idea of indivualism when suffering appears the most.

In the painting, all of the people are only aware of what they are doing and their personal task at hand. Icarus is not a concern for any of the other people, showing they have great self awareness. Breugel wants to show that Icarus drowning is no one's concern except that of Icarus. In the poem “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams, he talks about the self awareness of the people surrounding Icarus’s fall: “According to Brueghel/ when Icarus fell/ it was spring/ a farmer was ploughing his field/ the whole pageantry/ of the year was/ awake tingling near the edge of the sea/concerned with itself/ sweating in the sun that melted/ the wings’ wax/ insignificantly the coast there was/ a splash quite unnoticed this was Icarus drowning.”(www.poet.org). The quote “concerned with itself” refers to the rest of the audience of the painting only concerned with themselves instead of Icarus’s fate of

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus is about Daedalus, a famous and talented artisan, and his son Icarus and how they escaped Crete by using wax wings. Daedalus told Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, as the wings would melt, but Icarus did so anyways which led him to fall into the sea and drown. Through the story of Daedalus and Icarus, various similarities and contrasts can be made between the two and the relationship between Bechdel and her father in Fun Home. In this graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, she writes of the struggling relationship she had with her late father and how that affected her. The myth of Daedalus and Icarus apply to Bechdel and the relationship with her father due to the similarities of Daedalus being shut in a tower, being a craftsman and creating a labyrinth of sort.

Charles Baudelaire’s poetry is a great example of when two seemingly opposing styles of writing, romanticism and realism, meet. The two intertwine in this work to form a masterpiece of natural beauty and painful realism. His use of nature to drive many of his deeper contemplations gives this work an air of romanticism. He contrast this beauty by discussing topics that a writer of strict romanticism would typically stray away from, such as the strongly negative reality of human behavior. However, the combination of these two styles that appear to stand in opposition of one another is part of the unique and haunting beauty that Baudelaire offers in his poetry.

The Fall of Icarus displays great scale and proportion. If I were in the painting, I would be running away because I would be so scared seeing a man plunging to his death. I do not understand why Chagall painted the figures just standing still, for when artist paint or draw, they bring in their own thoughts in the painting that conveys their own interpretation of the story. In this case, The Fall of Icarus story. I would think that by painting those with more movement would bring more meaning to the story. With how the figures are painted now, it seems like they are happy to see Icarus falling, like they know somehow why he is falling. Like, the figures knew that he escaped from prison and they are proud of him. Or, the figures thought that

“Ars Poetica”, written by Archibald MacLeish, is a Modernist poem that, through careful sensory images, provides guidelines and clear examples of the true form of poetry, and in effect, the poem reveals how life should be lived. “Ars Poetica” is a beacon poem of the Imagist era, yet, at the same time, breaks many Modernist traditions. Similes are utilized throughout the poem to provide examples of how a poem should be brought into existence and evoke instantaneous feelings. “Ars Poetica” breaks the cardinal sin of Imagist poetry, “wordiness”, when it uses repetition to bring across, surprisingly, the core idea of Imagism. This ingenious contrast and contradiction within the poem, presented through imagery, is yet another angle used by MacLeish in bringing across his poems ultimate meaning. Poems should be living entities, and the very way a poem lives is the

The romantic period in literature started in roughly the 1790s and ended around the 1830s. This was a period when people’s imagination and love for nature flourished, prospered and then sky-rocketed. When comparing the two poems The Ropewalk and Because I Could Not Stop for Death for theme and tenets of romanticism, it is evident that both poets’ exemplify the power of imagination and the weight of nature through poetic devices. While one poet expresses the individual-self the other contradicts with a more social mindset. These comparisons help reveal that the poets’ purposes are to notice the influence of imagination and to also relish nature.

Poets are artists who earn their living through words, and their imagination. It is their own craft, as much as woodcarving is a carpenter's craft. We always take it for granted that artists who make their living with their own craft do it because they like doing what they’re doing; but it is not the only reason one might choose to exercise their own craft. In the three poems, we each see contrasting perspectives on their relationship with the same craft as shown in the poems primarily through tone and imagery.

Everyone, if not most, people are familiar with the question that asks, “If a tree falls in a forest and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Artists of all types, from poets to painters, strive to answer this question by preserving and bringing this sound to light to the best of their abilities. Joy Harjo and Art Spiegelman attempt to preserve a moment in time with their own work. In Source 1, Spiegelman attempts to save a legacy by jotting down his father’s memories while their shared with him. Harjo pulls a story out of the dust and ashes after a family song, describing distress-filled events, is passed down the generations. While there are few differences, the similarities amongst the works are seen in multiple aspects. This analysis will compare and contrast the context, audience, purpose, and stylistic features of the two.

Everyone, if not most people, is familiar with the question that asks, “If a tree falls in a forest and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Artists of all types, from poets to painters, strive to answer this question by preserving and bringing this sound to light to the best of their abilities. Joy Harjo and Art Spiegelman attempt to preserve a moment in time with their own work. In Source 1, Spiegelman attempts to save a legacy by jotting down his father’s memories while they’re shared with him. Harjo pulls a story out of the dust and ashes after a family song, describing distress-filled events, is passed down the generations. While there are few differences, the similarities amongst the works are seen in multiple aspects. This analysis will compare and contrast the context, audience, purpose, and stylistic features of the two.

Poetry exists at a junction between language and state of mind. Poetry is not just the vision of the writer put to a page, meant to evoke and inspire readers. Poetry is thoughts concealed given breath—a story reflecting the interior landscape of the mind. Just as it can be a breath of air, poetry can grip the heart—the mind can be an awfully dark place. Within gothic poetry the horror and fears of the poet lie just beyond the words of the poem itself. The words are emotional viscera given form. Poetry is aesthetic and inspiring and its brevity extends it to forms beyond itself. The works of romantic poets have been recycled and reimagined as a result of our continued love affair with the ideas of the gothic and supernatural. The works of

Paintings are mute in themselves and ekphrasis brings them alive. Auden lives in a world that is so bleak that one can no longer find expressions – people resign to their current condition and totalitarianism represses people’s voices. Also, when we look at paintings, we “feel” instead of “describe” – the process of verbalization takes more efforts. Very few are willing to take a step further and take an active stance. It’s a boundary that only a few attempts to take. Auden breaks the silence by using ekphrasis; He adds another layer of sensation– auditory aspect that forces us to take notice of the situation. In Musee des Beaux Arts, Auden uses onomatopoeia like “splashing” and “forsaken cry,” as if he is calling our attention to the fall of Icarus in reality. His use of progressive verbs “walking…waiting…skating… falling” and repetitive sound of “ing” imply that it is up to our responsibility to stop this continuous insensitivity. In The Shield of Achilles, he uses consonance – “column … column ... cloud” -- to create a cacophonous effect that stirs unease within us, raising our awareness of the severity of current condition. Moreover, by reading the poems without seeing the paintings, Auden suggests that we can envision, construct, and reshape our own paintings. After all, our own realities are creations of our