“Icarus’s Flight” Close Read By: Stephen Dobyns Reread lines 1-8. What else could the boy have done? Wasn’t How many lines are in each flight both an escape and a great uplifting? stanza? And so he flew. But how could he appreciate Do the lines rhyme? his freedom without knowing the exact point How is end punctuation used in each line? where freedom stopped? So he flew upward 5 and the sun dissolved the wax and he fell. But at last in his anticipated plummeting he grasped the confines of what had been Reread lines 9-16. his liberty. You say he flew too far? Highlight the alliterative words in He flew just far enough. He flew precisely 10 green to the point of wisdom. Would it What image is created by these have been better to flutter ignorantly words? What is meant by the two from petal to petal within some garden sentences in lines 10 and 11? forever? As a result, flight for him was not upward escape, but descent, with his wings 15 disintegrating around him. Should it matter Reread lines 16-20. that neither shepherd nor farmer with his plow Find the sentence that begins in watched him fall? He now had his answer, line 18 and read it aloud. laws to uphold him in his downward plunge. Highlight the alliteration in green. Cushion enough for what he wanted. 20 Why did the author use alliteration here?
“Icarus’s Flight” Close Read By: Stephen Dobyns What else could the boy have done? Wasn’t flight both an escape and a great uplifting? And so he flew. But how could he appreciate his freedom without knowing the exact point Reread lines 1-8. How many lines are in each stanza? Do the lines rhyme? How is end punctuation used in each line? 5 where freedom stopped? So he flew upward and the sun dissolved the wax and he fell. But at last in his anticipated plummeting he grasped the confines of what had been his liberty. You say he flew too far? 10 He flew just far enough. He flew precisely to the point of wisdom. Would it have been better to flutter ignorantly Reread lines 9-16. Highlight the alliterative words in green What image is created by these words? What is meant by the two sentences in lines 10 and 11? from petal to petal within some garden forever? As a result, flight for him was not 15 upward escape, but descent, with his wings disintegrating around him. Should it matter that neither shepherd nor farmer with his plow watched him fall? He now had his answer, laws to uphold him in his downward plunge. 20 Cushion enough for what he wanted. Reread lines 16-20. Find the sentence that begins in line 18 and read it aloud. Highlight the alliteration in green. Why did the author use alliteration here?
Icarus%20Flight%20Close%20Read.docx