In Greek mythology, the impetuous son of the inventor Daedalus. After the labyrinth be built for King Minos was 'solved' by Theseus, Daedalus was forbidden to leave the island of Crete. Being a wily inventor, he created wings from feathers and wax for he and his son to escape. Although Icarus was warned not to fly too close to the sun, he became bold and careless while flying, and the wings fell apart, sending him crashing to his death in the sea below.

Inspired by Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden:


Quite cold already, as if he were cast,
The child sank through barren sky
Like an anchor.

The bobbing ship, quietly set adrift,
Abandoned its damp nets to marvel
At the fall:

What parody of sacred birth
Now plummeted towards mother earth?

The melted tumult of wax and feathers
Must have appeared divine in hue
To slackjawed sailors,

But no foamy triumph rising through sea
Nor nymph-led rescue awaited these wings
For final uplifting.

--December 2000