Same-Day Diction In Edward Fields's 'Icarus'

In Icarus, by Edward Fields, the poet twists the myth into a contemporary manner. He utilizes latter-day diction and dull imagery to modernize the myth and exploit the main character’s ordinary life style .

Fields embedding of modern diction in his poem aided him in achieving his goal to transform the myth into a contemporary adaptation. By using terms such as "gang war " and "commuter trains" in his poem, Fields emphasizes to the reader that the poem is in occuring in a recent time since these are words not commonly used by Greeks during their era. Even though the poem is based off of the Icarus myth, Fields's diction separated it from the classical language of the Greek myths as he employs a more modern utilization of words to describe Icarus as one who is hopeless instead of one who is powerful and

courageous.

For example, when describing Mr. Hick's attitude for life as, "he wishes he had drowned." (30) This attitude clearly is contrary to that of a heroic God; one who is powerful and is overly glorified. Additionally, Fields employs adjectives like "those" and "that" instead of older pronouns such as "thy" and thee." The wording of this poem greatly changes the era for which the reader finds the poem to be written in. Most importantly, the wording deeply supports the transformation of Field's interpretation of the Icarus myth to that of the modern day Icarus as he too lives in a life without powers or heroism. This lack of power and heroism from the society of Icarus can also be an example of today's society. Tragedy is still found around the world from the same selfishness and carelessness as those who ignored Icarus many centuries ago. While

Field alters the era of which Icarus lives, he also alters the same tribulations society had, and still has, for its fellow people to prove the never-ending egotism for which life has always been lived through.
Setting can sometimes serve as its own character in poems if described well and is significant enough. In this case setting plays a huge role in transforming the myth into a contemporary one. In the Greek myths the settings were glorious and beautiful but in an ordinary world, nothing is very glamorous. This is emphasized when Icarus’s eyes that had once “completed the sun” are now “sad [and] defeated”. Fields utilization of this kind of imagery makes the reader feel as if this is a setting that is not beautiful nor glorious; its mediocre. Additionally, setting serves as a stage in a way for Fields as he exposes Icarus in complete different worlds as the first stanza mainly being described as his tragic death and the third stanza depicting his new life in the new world. In the first stanza, the setting explains the myth of Icarus through a crime scene. "So the report filed and forgotten in the archives read simply, "Drowned" (6-7). This confers how others simply forgot about the young Icarus. Which is something that happens to a lot of ordinary people; people will get so caught up in their own world’s they will forget about others in the process, which what happened to Icarus in the poem. In the third stanza, the setting changes to a mediocre lifestyle that "Mr. Hicks" now lives as the hero who fell "To the middling stature of the merely talented" (20). The setting in these lines represents the carelessness that Icarus's surrounding people had for him, as well as how "Mr. Hicks" has to adapt to his modern nearby people; a life not as glorious as the greek gods, thus, emphasizing the ordinary life style of the main character.
Field’s utilization of literary techniques crafted a contemporary poem to display the message that life is not always filled with great adventures; one will always will have their ups and downs.