Icarus

In “Icarus”, Don McKay explores the myth of Icarus from the point of view from someone who “isn’t sorry”(1). Although McKay’s intention may be to express the rigors of youth and abandonment to caution that is a central theme to the myth, I think he is most interested in the abandonment to a sport, to the very art of doing something that is ( Read more... )

In the poem “Musee de Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden, as the tile suggests, the narrator is in the art museum, probably in the Northern European 16th century Flemish section where there would be endless paintings of the madonna and child, along with paintings like “Hunters in the Snow” by Pieter Breughel (the elder) depicting children mindlessly skating ( Read more... )

There are many similarities and some differences in the poems “The Pomegranate” and “Persephone, Falling” by Eavan Boland and Rita Dove respectively. Both poems use intertextual references of the myth of Ceres and Persephone to present its theme in a contemporary context. The poems are about being on the precipice of coming of age, moving from an ( Read more... )

Within Greek mythology, the goddess Demeter is one of the lesser known twelve Olympians, and Persephone is her daughter by Zeus. Demeter is the goddess who rules over growth and death of the earths vegetation. As such, this extends to being the goddess of agriculture, horticulture, and goddess of motherhood. There are several versions of the story ( Read more... )

The title of the poem by TS Eliot “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” is indeed ironic. The poem goes on to represent a fictional character of a man named Prufrock caught in a bleak modern world who has little ability to deal with that world. And though he likes the idea of love, is impotent to feel or act on it. With the use of intertextuality, ( Read more... )

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is a poem steeped in strong emotion. She is clearly speaking about her emotional life alone, and in that she is expressing something true and real. It makes little difference whether the facts of her life are consistent or not. At least in the case of this poem, I feel Plath would strongly disagree with Jeanette Wintersons ( Read more... )

In the three poems “Miracle”, “The Writer”, and “Packing for the Future: Instructions”, the authors use manmade and natural objects as extended metaphors for the journey of life. In “The Miracle”, Harry Thursten uses a flowers transformation into fruit as an extended metaphor for the marvel of how his daughter will transform from a toddler into a ( Read more... )

In the story "Simple Recipes", Madeleine Thien uses the simple recipe of making rice as an extended metaphor for the “recipe” of love in human relationships. Thien describes her father cleaning the rice, “removing pieces of dirt or sand, tiny imperfections” (356). She describes her feelings toward her father: "that I will be able to separate one ( Read more... )

Oedipus once the beloved King of Thebes has passed from this earth. We pay homage to Oedipus for his honesty, wisdom, and intelligence that guided his leadership for many years. He will always be remembered for saving his people from the Sphinx. He fought the divine will of the gods but in the blind pursuit of truth succumbed to his fate, and in ( Read more... )

Part A ( Read more... )