Icarus, the man who hit rock bottom.

In Greek mythology Icarus is the story of a son who was given wings to fly, yet he was so compelled with the art of flying that he flew towards the sun, ultimately melting the wax holding the feathers and falling to his watery grave. The poem “Icarus” by Edward Field is a symbolic narration of a fallen hero in contemporary time that is crippled psychologically due to his loss of identity, his conformity to suburban life, and his constant personal struggles of achieving his past dreams.
Icarus losses his identity during the plunge into the sea, but finds a new life on the shores of a city. He rents a house and tends to his garden trying his best to be ordinary. His neighbors label Icarus as “Mr. Hicks” (l.10) not knowing his true identity. They assume that Icarus is as plain and ordinary as they are and there was nothing special about him. Yet, not too long ago, Mr. Hicks had “controlled huge wings” (l.12) with just his bare arms. Now the man who has soared higher than anyone else is a regular Joe in a gray suit.
After falling, Icarus tries conforming to the perfect mundane life of the suburb by keeping his past to himself. Because if he had told anyone about his great airborne ascend, “they would have answered with a shocked, uncomprehending stare” (l. 15). No one would believe that good o’ Mr. Hicks could fly. And Icarus didn’t want to bother their simple minds, which were fixated on their “neat front yards” (l.16). He was just trying to blend in and live in the plain, simple, ordinary life. Although deep down at the pit of his persona, Icarus couldn’t help questioning, was this where he was destined to be? “Can the genius of the hero fall to the middling stature of the merely talented?” (l.19-20). Uneasiness rises to a boil in Icarus’s kettle of a conscience. He shared a similar confinement to that of a bird imprisoned in a cage, unable to feel the gentle gliss of the open wind.
Icarus constantly self-harasses himself with his past failures and mistakes. Every night Icarus would “probe his wounds,” (l.21). He would punish himself for his faults, through pain, never letting go of the errors. Icarus ties to relive the past achievements of his life by trying to recreate them, “and daily in his workshop, cutains carefully drawn, constructs small wings and tries to fly,” (l.23-24). But his efforts end in misery with each fall he endures, “fails every time and hates himself for trying…and wishes he had drowned,” (l.25,30). Icarus doesn’t know how else to reignite his passion for life as he sinks deeper into depression.
The poem “Icarus” is an issue everyone has at one point in his or her lives. It is the moment where individuals hit rock bottom and in their grieving state they must muster enough self-discipline, persistency, and hope to get back on their feet. We all must continue our perseverance diligently with vision in our minds and eventually we will be able to reach the surface and out of the powerful grasp of the ocean.