Labyrinth Timed Writing Sept. 20

2009B Poem: “Icarus” (Edward Field) Prompt: The following poem makes use of the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Field employs literary devices in adapting the Icarus myth to a contemporary setting.. The Labyrinth, a mythical maze of ancient times in which the Minotaur, the ashamed half-human stepson of King Menalaus, was imprisoned, remains a strong literary inspiration in modern times. An example of its modern influence is seen in The Labyrinth by Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). In his poem, Borges uses figurative language and allusions to the Greek Labyrinth to develop the setting, enjambment and assonance to encourage the poem’s flow, as well as a tone shift from the speaker’s quiet misery to an outward panic, forming a relationship between the speaker and the reader while rebuilding the mythical Labyrinth in today’s world. Much of The Labyrinth is dedicated to developing the speaker’s surroundings as an intimidating maze of “galleries” and “nets of stone” (Lines 1-2) that “Zeus himself could not undo” (Line 1). In its description, Borges combines the use of extensive figurative language and allusion to enhance the setting, drawing the reader into the poem itself and beginning the intimate speaker-reader relationship. The poem begins with “Zeus, Zeus himself could not undo these nets/ Of stone encircling me.” (Lines 1-2), an allusion to the original labyrinth, the inescapable trap in Ancient Greece. In this allusion, the setting is primarily introduced as a place so inescapable that the greatest god of myths himself could not conquer it. Borges then uses personification to enhance the formidable and oppressive nature of the setting, creating a place in which “galleries seem straight/ But curve furtively, forming secret circles” (Lines5-6). Such description turns the realistically inanimate setting into a menacing beast with “hollow air/…[that] brings a bellowing,/ Or the echo, desolate, of bellowing.” (Lines 10-11) cunningly plots the speaker’s demise. The personified Labyrinth and flow of Borges’ poem is largely enriched by Borges’ subtle hints at rhyme as well as his manipulation of structure through the use of enjambment and caesura. Though the poem does not follow a consistent rhyme scheme, if read aloud, the passages flow nevertheless due to the use of assonance. For example the “a” in “way” (Line 3) resurfaces repeatedly throughout lines 4 and 8. The passage reads “My mind forgets/ The person I have been along the way,/ The hated way of monotonous walls,/ Which is my fate../…the parapets/ Have been worn smooth by the passage of days.” (Lines 2-8) and the rhyme of “way”, “fate”, and “days” unconsciously propels the poem. The rhyming is also made less obvious by the use of enjambment and caesura throughout the poem; instead of forming lines in which the last words of a phrase rhyme, Borges splits flowing sentences up between lines and then inserts breaks within the line itself. This can be seen throughout the poem where there is rarely a period or finalized thought at the end of a single line but instead merged into the next. (Ex.“Zeus, Zeus himself could not undo these nets/ Of stone encircling me. My mind forgets/ The person I have been along the way, …” (Lines 1-3)). In addition, Borges uses parallel structure between sentences describing the setting (“The galleries seem straight/ But curve furtively…/…the parapets/ Have been worn smooth by the passage of days./ The hollow air/ Of evening sometimes brings a bellowing…” (Lines 5-11)) as well as the speaker’s enemy whose “task” is “To crave my blood, and to fatten on my death.” (Line 16). The repeated “the”-subject-action structure of sentences describing the setting as well as the repeated “to”-verb-“my” patterns seen later are multi-purposeful, emphasizing the passages while aiding the poem’s flow. The combined effect of enjambment, caesura, and parallel structure helps the poem read as a consistent progression rather than pieces with breaks in between as it draws the reader’s attention through the line and to the next with little disturbance between individual thoughts. The poem’s progression can also be tracked through the first person point of view as well as the tone shift in the last five lines. Written in first person, the reader is drawn into the speaker and placed in his shoes, experiencing his fear viscerally. The close relationship between the speaker and the reader established by the first person point of view, in effect, highlights the speaker’s tone shift when it occurs in line 13, shifting from a passive quivering to a cry for help; the alarm experienced first-hand by the speaker is passed onto the reader. Through much of the poem the speaker is trapped in the labyrinth and describes it with dread but not in an outward way. He is frightened and his “mind forgets/ The person I have been along the way” (Line 2-3) but only exhibits a quiet inward panic as he wanders the “curving” “galleries” (Line 5) of the Labyrinth. This changes with the last six lines when the tone shifts from quiet misery to a desperate cry as it is revealed to us just what is so threatening to the speaker aside from the setting itself: a companion. In the original myth, this fellow occupant is the Minotaur which would understandably heighten the speaker’s panic. As the speaker dawns on the reality that “hidden in the shadows there/ Lurks another, whose task is to exhaust/ The loneliness that brains and weaves this hell,/ To crave my blood, and to fatten on my death.” (Lines 12-16), the reader too realizes that the speaker’s enemy seeks him as they “seek each other” (Line 17) just as the speaker himself enters a frenzy of fear. This shift is solidified with the speaker’s final exclamation of “Oh, if only this/ Were the last day of our antithesis!” (Line 18). Through the use of literary devices including figurative language, structure, and point of view, Borges brings The Labyrinth to an audience two thousand years after its creation while maintaining its integrally imposing atmosphere.

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