Amazing Anylasis

In my English class I was asked to write an essay analyzing this poem:

Flight 063


Why always speak of Icarus’ fall?—
That legendary plunge
Amid a shower of tallow
And feathers and the poor lad’s
Sweat? And that little splash
Which caught the eye of Brueghel
While the sun remained
Aloof within its private zone?

That fall remains
Suspended in the corporate mind.
Yet as our Boeing flies
High above the Arctic Circle

Into the sun’s eye, think—
Before the fall the flight was.
(So with Adam—just before
The Edenic Fall, he had
That first taste of Eve.)

Dinner is served aboard Flight 063.
We eat from plastic trays, oblivious
To the stratosphere.

But Icarus—his cliff-top jump,
The leap of heart, the blue air scaled—
His glorious sense of life
Imperiled. Time
Fell far below, the everyday
Was lost in his ascent.

Up, up, he sailed, unheeding
Such silly limitations as
The melting point of wax.


Brian Aldiss (1994)

Here it is:
I feel this is the best paper I have ever written


Looking Down on Icarus

In his poem “Flight 063”, Brian Aldiss perfectly demonstrates the contrast of how oblivious modern day individuals can be. Along with embedding Icarus into the modern world, Aldiss also puts a multi-spectator perspective on the poem. Essentially, Aldiss paints Icarus as an optimist who embraces the glory of the journey and the beauty of the improbable in contrast to modern man who focuses solely on oblivious pessimism.
The structure of the poem is very significant, because it compares the optimistic attitude that Icarus sustains to the pessimism that the modern day passengers on the airplane reveal. The author’s strategy of conveying this claim is very unique and detectable structurally. Aldiss changes the perspective of the poem every other stanza. This is very noticeable in the transition between stanzas two and three; “[h]igh above the Arctic circle” (12) and the next stanza begins with: “[i]nto the sun’s eye…”(13). The change in perspective is crystal clear, in line 12 Aldiss focuses on the airplane and with the change of the stanza, the point of view shifts to Icarus and his spectacular flight high in the air. “But Icarus―…”(21) is another structurally important factor of the poem. The shift is defined with the “―”(21) it symbolizes the variation between stanza four and five, because in stanza four Aldiss was angling the poem towards the airplane. Then, stanza five is begins with “but” which contradicts the perspective in stanza four; shifting the poem to the new Icarus viewpoint. By using the word “but” the writer is conveying a new idea or thought process. When Aldiss uses he word ”but”, he is also trying to show the pessimism of the passengers of the plane, comparing them to the more optimistic Icarus.
Brian Aldiss also demonstrates wonderful diction that clearly describes the optimism and pessimism of both perspectives. “His glorious sense of life [i]mperiled”(23-4) is a major aspect of showing the significance of Icarus’s endangerment. “Imperiled” is a very powerful word that justifies the major importance of “[h]is glorious sense of life”(23) being put at risk and endangered. Aldiss also uniquely explains Icarus’s fall by saying: “[s]uch silly limitations as [t]he melting point of wax”(28-9) by the writer saying “limitations” it shows that Icarus reached the limits of the sky. Also, “silly” describes the limitations as being pointless and weak-minded. The author is giving the cause of the fall by saying: “as the melting point of wax”(29) this is a very exclusive way to describe the cause of the fall. Repetition is another very excellent way to show importance and Aldiss shows this in stanza six: “up, up he sailed…”(27) the repetition in the sentence is describing the significance of the climb into the sky.
Because of the pessimism and optimism described in the poem, Aldiss paints the modern people on the airplane as pessimistic individuals who focus only on the small and unimportant aspects of the world. Aldiss’s overall moral of the poem is to change the pessimistic attitude that we convey, and to start looking at the glass half full. What Aldiss suggests is that people of the world should look “into the sun’s eye”(13) and focus on appreciating the little things in life.