Ikarus - By: Rachel L

I see you, the sun that shines upon my earth, but do you see me?

The feel of your rays on my skin is heaven, I yearn to be closer to your warmth.

My father always reminded me of your danger, but does it matter?

You are warmth and you are life, of course those who have never lived are drawn to you.

My heart is struck by the love arrow,

My mind says once upon a time,

But my eyes know where yours goes,

To study a hundred thousand souls.

Of course, I am easy to sway,

One glimpse and my heart goes away,

Again and again no matter what vow I make

To my father, to myself, to my safety and my life.

After every time you leave me, I wait.

I know dawn breaks so hours I waste, begging for the night to be over.

I want your glow to disrupt the peace, so I stare at the night,

Wishing my sighs would eventually bring your smile.

Finally, you rise, today you look at me.

Is there anything you'd like?

All you have to do is ask,

I am and always will be yours.

All you have to do is mask the truth, and I will stay,

Worshipping, as the world falls.

But do you need to?

No, I love the idea of you too much.

So burn me! I'll stay. I yearn for your sun and skies.

So burn me! My wings didn't take forever to make.

So burn me! Maybe that's the only way I'll learn, Father was always right.

And I fall.

My father wants to catch me.

But I have felt your warmth,

I have seen your skies.

What else is there to live for?

What more do I need?

To the ocean I plummet,

I submit to his darkest depths,

Poseidon, please, let me see the sun again.

this time I will learn, this time I won't yearn for the warmth of the sun's blaze,

nor for freedom's inevitable burn.

Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.

It's about an unrequited but ultimately damaging love, that you shoot too high from. In the end, you still love that person, and despite everyone's warnings, you still make that big mistake. Because of your love, you neglect everything, and feel like your life is consumed by it. You say that you have learnt from the mistake of loving this unloving person, but really, you probably have not, and will make the mistake again.

Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.

I love myths and the story of Ikarus is about 'shooting too high', but when I read it, I also felt like it could mean basically what I wrote. Ikarus has never experienced anything like the sun before, of course he would rush straight up to it, and feel the repercussions of his mistake, but at the same time, because Ikarus had never experienced the sun, I felt like there was a parallel to be explored, so I tried to explore it.

Why did you choose to write this poem?

The myth of Ikarus is familiar to a lot of people, but because it is a myth I felt it up for interpretation. It's themes can represent a lot of things, and I decided to play on it because I had experienced something similar.