Icarus By Edward Field: Analysis Of Word Choice, Structure, And Theme
Edward Field’s “Icarus” poem explains to readers about a well-known myth of Icarus and Daedalus; however, it is slightly different as it is set in a present-day atmosphere. This myth shows readers how Icarus attempts to live in a society with other humans, but cannot successfully succeed. As the poem shows readers the aspect of the modern world it tells the story on how life does not allow Icarus to portray himself as who he is, which forces him to be someone he is not; just for him to lose himself in the process giving up on his dreams. Through the use of the poet’s word choice, structure, and theme, the poem analyzes how Icarus is clearly going through a rough time in his life to the point he believes dying would solve everything rather than living in this environment, as living is worse than being dead.
Word choice throughout a poem is very important as it allows the readers to understand powerful messages the author is trying to convey to the audience. Some poems may be much more compact than others and every word counts as authors would want to get their point across to their readers. This is what Field does, his opening sentence, “Only the feathers floating around the hat/ Showed that anything more spectacular had occurred”. The opening lines in the first stanza allow readers to understand this poem is based on a myth as the feathers floating down is a representation to Icarus falling down towards his death. As this poem is a Greek myth Field uses words for the readers which are much more modernized allowing the audience to understand why Icarus wanted to drown rather than live. The importance of word choice allows readers to see the development of Icarus character as he is now a normal human living in a normal society, “daily in his workshop, curtains, carefully drawn”. He is no longer living in a society where he is a hero, more so just a man who “thought himself a hero”. This is very important as he no longer sees himself as who he wanted himself to be. Much rather just a man who has a day to day job, and who is clearly unhappy with himself. Icarus’s belief in himself is extremely important as this is a natural occurrence that is not only demonstrated in Field’s poem but individuals lives. Field uses a very powerful closing statement as it explains Icarus’s life is truly not where he wanted it to be, “And wishes he had drowned”. The use of word choice allows the readers to understand and feel sympathy towards Icarus as he no longer seems to value his life.
The structure of “Icarus” is a three-stanza free verse poem which explains the chaos of Icarus’s life. It is a very powerful poem as it seems to teach a lesson to readers explaining one’s fate and life choices. Icarus chose not to listen to his father which causes him to be in the city and question, “What was he doing in a suburb?” rather than living a good life as a hero. With the poem only having three stanzas it allows the readers to understand each stanza is broken up into Icarus’s life and feelings. The structure of stanza one tells the story of a man who is experiencing failure, he has dreams he cannot achieve. In the second stanza, the change of a hero to a normal human is portrayed as he now has a job working just like everyone else. The last stanza explains the fallen hero, he no longer believes his potential and wished he was no longer alive. With the structure of “Icarus” being more complex than other poems, it is evident there is no rhyme scheme throughout the poem; however, there are some rhyming that does go on in the first stanza. Examples of rhyme include “Then the usual drowning. The police preferred to ignore/ And the witness ran off to a gang war”. Being a free verse poem allows readers to understand the poem as more of a story, and Field is still able to provide artistic expression. With the structure of this poem being written in a third person perspective, it shows how Icarus was feeling and what is going through not only in his mind but shows how others feel towards him. As the poem ends in a harsh manner it shows one last time how one’s failure can truly impact one's life. Icarus had already felt as he was mentally dying he just wished he had physically died.
A major theme demonstrated in Field’s poem is of pride and punishment. Icarus clearly has a lot of pride and thinks somewhat highly of himself as he calls himself a hero, but that can only go so far. Since his heroism was a big part of who he is, he does not understand why he is living this normal life. With Icarus now living in a modern environment, it is evident it is not working out, “Where he rented a house and tended the garden”. Actions such as these are all new to him and something he would not normally do, it is clearly a shock to him. Icarus had all this built up pride prior to being in this modern environment where he believed he could fly high with the wings his father had made for him. Even though his father told him not to fly close to the sun, due to the fact the sun would melt the wax on his wings, as he did not listen it caused him to plummet into the water. Since he did not listen to his father he decided to “Constructs small wings and tries to fly”. This was his attempt at getting his pride back, but since he had failed he had lost hope. The pride got to his head and with that, the punishment was not actually dying in this version. Hense, Icarus’s punishment was living in a world that is completely new for him, and readers are able to understand through this theme that he is not happy. Due to his unhappiness, he experienced he would have rather fell in the water and drowned.
This well-known myth that Edward Field’s writes “Icarus” on is able to demonstrate to readers the difference between living in the Greek world versus the modern world. The poem is able to demonstrate to individuals how one’s life can change very quickly over something small. If Icarus had just listened to his father his life could have been much different; however, the decisions individuals do make are made for a reason and this choice made is something he had to live with. With living in the modern world Icarus was not able to succeed to this full potential that he wanted to achieve. With the use of the poems word choice, structure, and development of theme, readers are able to get an insight of how hard life was for Icarus and why he wanted to be dead rather than living in a society he was unhappy about.
