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Mythology Every poetry piece is like a crossword, the pleasure of reading the poem comes from deciphering the true meaning of poets metaphors. All three poems, Lines on Brueghels Icarus by Michael Hamburger, To Friend Whose Work has Come to Triumph by Anne Sexton and Musee Des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden are highly metaphorical pieces.
Theyre basically the authors reflections on famous story of Icarus, which had originated in ancient Greece. The story itself is quite simple - being unable to find their way out of Theseus Labyrinth, Deadalus and his son Icarus have decided to master a wings and to simply fly out their captivity. Deadalus has warned his son not to fly either too low or too high, as splashes of seawater would make his wings too heavy, or the wax that kept all the feathers in place, would melt, if he approached the sun too close. Nevertheless, Icarus had simply forgotten his fathers warning, when he began soaring in the sky.
He flew too high and thats why he ended up in the water, after the wax on his wings melted away The tale of Icarus has always served as an inspiration for great many works of literature. It is one big allegory of human drive towards perfection, which sometimes ends up in tragedy. Let us to take a closer look at these poems (1) The ploughman ploughs, the fisherman dreams of fish; Aloft, the sailor, through a world of ropes begins his poem Michael Hamburger. It is not that author describes the events, which precede the downfall of Icarus he assesses the world through the set of routine functions. The world of ropes here is the reference to pragmatic reality. Hamburger also mentions a tangled meditations, on the part of sailor.
He wants to say that such meditations, which are metaphysical in its nature, are held down to Earth with the ropes of reality, that is sailors, ploughmen and fishermen are incapable of soaring in the sky, since they cant abstractisize from what they do. It is not by accident that Hamburger describes sheep in the very next sentence: Sheep crop the grass, lift up their heads and gaze Into a sheepish present: the essential, Illimitable juiciness of things There can be no mistake that above mentioned fraction is filled with deep sarcasm. Author simply emphasizes his scorn for objective reality, which limits the expansion of ones thought. The sheepish present and illimitable juiciness of things are associated with happiness of narrow-minded.
The fall of Icarus is represented as the most important even, which, nevertheless, does not affect the surrounding reality: The angel, Icarus He scorned the ordering planet, which prevailed Hamburger describes Icarus as the angel. The prevailing Earth is a metaphor for the objectivity of gravitational pull. Even the angels are subjected to it in the same way, as mans spirituality is subjected to the banality of physical world. Authors interpretation of Icarus tale in Lines on Brueghels Icarus unmistakably points out to the fact that this piece was written in the first part of twentieth century, as it excessively uses symbolism, which was very fashionable back than. Hamburgers meditation on the story of Icarus has all the features of tragic observation. Author doesnt impose its views upon the reader but expects him to accept his idea, for as long as such reader share the same system of worldviews coordinates. (2) Anne Sextons To Friend Whose Work has Come to Triumph main feature is its high emotionalism, which is explainable, given the fact that is comes from a female poet.
Her interpretation of Icarus tale is focused on its sensual aspects, rather then on philosophical ones. There below are the trees, as awkward as camels she says, as if it was her flying. She compares trees to the camels because there is something unambiguously common about them their solidity. People, trees, camels are all given the status of things below by the one, who soars up in the sky. Admire his wings! Feel the fire at his neck encourages us Sexton.
In her words there is a promise of brief but intense pleasure. Such intensity is caused by the sacrilegious nature of Icarus flight. Men are not supposed to fly but to walk, therefore, soaring in the sky is better thought of as an ultimate act of transgression against God. But this is exactly the reason why it is associated with pleasure, just as any sin. There is a story of Spanish princess, who exclaimed, upon eating an ice cream: What a divine pleasure, I only wish it was sinful Although, there are no references to sex in Sextons poem, it is definitely sexual, as a whole: Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on, testing this strange little tug at his shoulder blade Author uses sensuality as descriptive method. In the end, she suggests that Icarus flight constituted acquiring the sun, which clearly points out to the fact that in poets mind, such act possesses the properties of sexual orgasm.
Over the fog and the blast of the plushy ocean, he goes she says, referring to Icarus, and the true essence of her poetic emotion will become obvious to us, if we recall the movies, where sexual intercourse is represented as train, going into the tunnel or the rocket, which slowly but steadily gains height Sextons reflection on the story of Icarus is quite remarkable, because it opens a new aspects of it to the male readers. For her, his act is the ultimate expression of manliness, because it leads to self-destruction in the end. Icarus fell, but in every death there is a promise of new life Sexton doesnt really interpret this story; she simply feels it through verbal means. (3) W. H. Auden's Musee Des Beaux Arts is another attempt to reassess the tale of Icarus, by applying a logistic approach.
In it, author tries to tell us that the Icarus suicidal courage is quite normal from social prospective, as it doesnt impact surrounding people at all: In Brueghels's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the plowman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone The transgression against the laws of nature deserves to be forgotten, for as long as it doesnt reverse such laws. Author is being more historian than the poet, because he evaluates of what happened to Icarus from historical context. For him, even suffering and insanity have the right to be the part of history, because they can be organically integrated into it. While referring to an Old Masters, which are important historical figures, authors asserts us that They never forgot that even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Auden implies the notion of fatality to his vision of Icarus flight: There always must be Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating On a pond at the edge of the wood Seemingly, this fragment does not contain any metaphors, but there is one contextual. Children play their games, without knowing what future might hold for them. It can be fame and recognition, but it also might be the death and suffering.
The tragedy of Icarus lies in fact that something that was going to bring him fame, resulted in his death. But his tragedy is far from being considered as universal, since the sun still shines and fishermen go about their daily duties, just like before. Even though that some extraordinary events might not result in changing peoples lives, theyre still necessary for this world to remain an interesting place to live in: While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth Therefore, even though that the fall of Icarus did not result in an immediate peoples reaction, it prompted their descendants to consider his story from aesthetical point of view, which wouldnt happen if Icarus birth wasnt marked with historicity from very beginning. This is the most important conclusion, found in Auden's poem. Authors metaphors are not meant to puzzle the reader, quite contrary they are used to brighten the historical logistics in this poem.
Also, there can be found symbolical metaphors in Musee Des Beaux Arts, like white legs disappearing into the green water. I would interpret it as allegorical description of divine psychological traits of every individual, being consumed by its beastly physical nature. White has always been associated with good in European culture, while other colors are only used to emphasize the different degrees of corruption. The green water is actually perceived as black, because author implies the notion of depth in this fragment. All three poems can serve as a good example of what can be accomplished if metaphors are being skillfully used in the pieces of poetry.
These poetic means directly depend on poets ability to operate with abstract matters. Metaphor is a dynamic phenomenon, which enables us to generate new meanings from old. Still, generating a new meaning can be only achieved if author is able to improvise with classical terms, by placing them unconventionally in the text. The metaphors that are being used by talented authors, usually fit into the text organically and therefore, they very rarely require any additional explanations, on the part of critics.
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