Icarus Poetry Analysis

A Human Fault Revealed People’s eyes are never focused on what is in front of them. Instead, their eyes are forever astray, looking at their other desires. Yet an irony exists. Even when they obtain their desires, they are never content. Never satisfied with what they have. Always grasping with their greedy claws. In the poem “Icarus” by Edward Fields, Fields display this human fault perfectly. The story of Icarus has been told in uncountable number of ways. Most are about the love a father has for his son and the grief he experiences after a crippling loss. Most are about the effects of disobedience. Yet none focuses on the aftermath of the boy’s “death” and human nature. Writing about Icarus, the boy who fell out of the sky after he escaped from the dreaded Minotaur, Fields deftly maneuvers his poem to hint at such a fault. Transporting Icarus into the modern age, Fields uses irony, symbols, and style to transmit the fact that people are always greedy and insatiable.
The setting of “Icarus” by Fields transmits the ultimate irony in this poem – the fact that such a mundane modern world is mixed with the glorious splendor and adventure of the past. A past that Icarus cannot forget and desires. Fields makes the poem take place in a place where Icarus “rented a house and tended the garden.” He goes on commuter train and wears gray suits. The portrayal is that of absolute commonness – no sense of identity, no sense of being special. Yet in this down-to-earth world is Icarus, a person who came from the glorious Greece, who escaped the fearful Minotaur, who had took a tour of the sky…and who had crashed down and survived. One would think he is thankful to be alive, right? When he was in the maze with the Minotaur, all he wanted was to get out and live a peaceful life. Yet when he received just that, a peaceful life in a mundane world, he yearns for the past. The past “heroic” life. Such irony delicately crafted by Fields shows that people have insatiable desires In