Figure of Speech and Ancient Greece Essay

Modernity has certainly evolved from the time of the quaint Greece. However, the advancements in technology have not necessarily created a Utopian society. In Icarus, a poem by Edward Field, a mythological fount is placed in the bustling and oxymoronic reality of the modern world. Figurative language, irony, syntax, and perspectives are essential elements of Fields relocation of Icarus, whose relocation exposes an alienating and unrelenting 20th century setting. Irony and contrast are at present evident as Icaruss story unfolds in the second millennium of the common era.Beginning be depicting the setting and its inhabitants, the speaker highlights some oxymorons in current behavior. Witnesses to Icaruss mishap run mop up to a gang war, a cruel satire of urban life and ironical reversion of roles in just one line. Furthermore, Icaruss report at the police station is filed and forgotten, one element denying the direct of the other. In addition to this, modern practices appear to contrast those of Icaruss original setting in ancient Greece, tales were not written solely sang, and they certainly werent forgotten.Thus, though lacking mention to the protagonist, the first stanza subtly implies immediate differences between Icaruss traditional home and his new one. The second stanza begins with yet another apposition of the original and the modified while the foolish Icarus would have been deemed disobedient in his times, he becomes nice Mr. Hicks in modernity. As the speaker begins to describe Icarus directly, another allusion to modern tenets is made Icaruss suit concealed arms, which we in brief find out though that they are not the arms utilise in gang wars but those with which he attempted flight.Icaruss neighbors cannot perceive his sadness at the failure of his deed, though, and the gentle time (and air) traveler does not wish to upset them by revealing the truths. In this case, a metonymic front yards is used by the speaker to symbolize the suburban l ifestyle and moralistic attitude of the people surrounding Icarus. In creating the final analogies and contrasts between the past and present Icaruses, the speaker draws into the tragic hero side of the protagonist and uses it in a rhetorical question at the end of the second stanza.Unfortunately for Icarus, it seems, he did not communicate to his death but to the middling stature of the merely talented he cannot find serenity in an environment where personal judgment (Icaruss neighbors) cannot reconcile with the group activities (participating in committees and riding commuter trains). apply anaphora, the first two lines of the third stanza convey Icaruss longing for tragic departure, juxtaposing nightly reflection and effortless attempts at flight.Lacking the success he had in the past, even though it had cost him, Icarus comes to the conclusion that his role would have been much more satisfactory had he drowned. Field employs techniques of content (contrast and irony) and of h ow the content is shaped (anaphora and tropical language). In doing so, he conveys both poetically personal reflections and an effective change of Icaruss setting, shaping this bend as an even more tragic story for the protagonist than his death in had been.