Chapter 9: "It's Greek to Me"

Waiting For Icarus by Muriel Rukeyser

He said he would be back and we'd drink wine together
He said that everything would be better than before
He said we were on the edge of a new relation
He said he would never again cringe before his father
He said that he was going to invent full time
He said he loved me that going into it
He said he was going into the world and the sky
He said all the buckles were very firm
He said the was was the best was
He said wait for me here on the beach
He said just don't cry

I remember the gulls and the waves
I remember the islands going dark on the sea
I remember the girls laughing
I remember they said he only wanted to get away from me
I remember mother saying: Inventors are like poets, a trashy lot
I remember she told me those who try out inventions are worse
I remember she added: Women who love such are the worst of all

I have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer
I would have like to try those wings myself
It would have been better than this

The impact of the myth on the poem's theme is the grief that is followed after a great tragedy. We don't know if the man is actually Icarus or just a mean whose inventions and different ways of doing things resembles Icarus. For this analysis, I am putting it in the perspective of Icarus' girlfriend or woman he fancies. She is apprehensive and nervous about his flight because she states in the poem "He said the wax was the best wax", "He said wait for me here on the beach". Along with apprehensiveness, she faces being worried after Icarus fails to return. She hits a low point and even wants to put herself in the position of Icarus, "I would have liked to try those wings on myself." The myth teaches you to obey your elders and this poem shows how each death affects the people we love most with the most pain.