Question

How does Dobyns’s use of unusual structure affect the meaning of “Icarus’s Flight?”

Answer 1

Answer:

D. The way sentences extend from one stanza into the next pull the reader along.

Explanation:

The myth of "Icarus" and his flight to the sun bringing his fall from the sky is a story we are all familiar with. It was this story that gives us the lesson of not going beyond what is dictated or not to be too curious or greedy.

Stephen Dobyns' version/ poem of the same myth presents the same case, but the only difference is that he presents the other possibility or other nature of the flight. For him, the escape doesn't merely mean an escape from the island or captivity, but it also signals the realization of what freedom is and to what extent it is available. For him, it was "a great uplifting", "fly[ing] precisely to the point of wisdom".

This unstructured and unusual pattern of poetry, the way the sentences are pulled along to the next stanza, without much punctuation makes the reader eager to keep reading. It entices and arrests the reader's interest, pulling us along until the end.

Thus, the correct answer is option D.