The Myth of Icarus Portrayed in Today's Literature

In the video “Distant Voices: Myth, Symbolism, and Allusion in Poetry” narrated by Fran Dorn, Dorn and a guest speaker Marjorie Perloff a professor at Stanford University discuss the story of Icarus and Daedalus from the Greek myth and its use in today's literature. In the myth Icarus, the son of Daedalus, disobeys his father while the two try to escape from a maze in which a great king has them. During the escape, the two fashion wings out of feathers they find while inside the maze and are able to escape by flying away. However, during the escape young Icarus disobeys his father who told him he should not fly to close to the sun or the wax that holds his wings together would melt and he would fall to his death. But, during the escape Icarus sees the sun and is so amazed by its beauty that he disregards his father’s warnings and tries to get closer to the sun to better see its beauty and eventually plunges to his death. In the video, the professors discuss four different stories based on this idea of sons disobeying their fathers. These poems include “To a Friend Whose Work has Come to Triumph” by Anne Sexton, and “Icarus” by Stephen Spender.
In her poem, Anne Sexton discusses how Icarus strives to see a moment of beauty before his death while his sensible father continues to fly straight into town. Marjorie Perloff who speaks in the video talks discusses how Anne Sexton seems to take a woman’s view of the myth of Icarus in her poem. Perloff also states that Sexton sympathizes with Icarus in her poem. Perloff believes Sexton tries to ask the question why we are always criticizing Icarus for flying so high is it really so wrong of him to strive to see beauty while his father returns home to continue his everyday life.
In the video, Marjorie Perloff also discusses “Icarus” by Stephen Spender. Perloff states that Spender seems to sympathize with Icarus in the story saying that he had so much potential but instead of using it, he becomes an aristocrat; then when