Icarus In Catechism Class
The story revolves around the ancient story of Cirrus and Deals. In a outsell, Cirrus was the son of the artist Deals who created a labyrinth for the Minotaur, as commanded by King Minis. Cirrus and his father wanted to escape from Crete. They used Deals’ invention-?a pair Of wings made Of feathers and wax. Deals warned his son not to go too near the ocean or the sun, because his wings would get wet and be too heavy, or the wax holding his wings would melt and be gone.
Now to the poem proper, Olio gives us an image of Cirrus inside a church or a religion convention and he feels very much uninterested having every intention of getting out. In the first line ” Or make us angels all, with dirty et,” already brings about a disconnection or a confusion because of the word “or” and “all”, who is Cirrus referring too? Followed up with ” Without wings, chanting the beatitudes Without exultation nor thought, counting” shows us an irony of angels having no wings but with dirty feet possibly due to walking with bare feet.
These lines shows us angels being humankind, removing their wings so they would walk live men turns them into something just like us. ” counting the silver halos on the heads of saints/And ignoring the pastels on the stunning/ Stained glass windows. ” further supports the act of humiliation. To ignore he pastels on the stained glass windows shows us that the stained glass isn’t stunning no more. It is portrayed as something of the ordinary. Also, “counting the silver halos” further supports the fact the Cirrus mood is revolving around the concept of boredom.
The next verse being “This morning Deals/My father’ gives us an affirmation that Cirrus is indeed the persona. Moving on to “Spoke of escape from this dark labyrinth” gives me two (2) impressions here, the more religion version and the more scientific and historic version. One being that the dark labyrinth maybe related to the Church where Cirrus is trapped in for the time Ewing. Another reading is that knowing Cirrus is being consumed by boredom, his thoughts maybe already wondering off relating what he feels inside the Church to be what he really feels to be trapped inside the labyrinth.
Connecting this with ” This walled-in wilderness where the black/birds twitter/ Homilies from the pulpit. “, following the first reading the “black birds” are the priest or preachers filling him with nonsense or following the second reading they could be somewhat the evil men keeping him inside that labyrinth. “O I wait the noon” – The noon could signify the crucifixion of Jesus Christ owing He died at pm then it would be around noon when he was placed on the cross. While following the second reading, noon is known to be the hottest part of the day when the sun is directly above us.
The next line is a bit confusing “Soon the minutes will glibly run/lento the decades full of women and sinners”, the trail of thought for the first reading became bigger. We were looking at it in the time line of Jesus’ life but Olio gives us a grander picture to the time of genesis. Women being sinners correlates to the time Eve ate the apple. For the second reading, women throughout history have gained this ad notion of being seductresses. Moving on to ” O hour of my death, O let the noon bell ring” could be connected to the later part of the prayer Hail Mary – Pray for us sinner now and at the hour of our death.
Cirrus at this point maybe prayer already. On the other hand, noon as mention is the hottest part of the day, could refer to the point of Cirrus’ life when he is about to part ways from the human world. Lastly, the part “l want to go home I want to put On my wings. ” for the first reading could be that he has awakened from his trail of thoughts and simply just wants to escape from the religious invention and put on his wings to escape from this insane world or it could also mean Cirrus’ death in his life, home for he isn’t in the human world no more.
Cirrus viewed religion to be something that captivated him. Something that sets the norms, rules, regulations that each person has to obey. It would limit his freedom. He would rather also experience life at first hand by stepping outside rather than sitting inside a religious convention listening to what and what not to do. It was a battle between his reality and illusions. Reality being him actually inside a church and illusion being the bigger picture of him being rapped inside the labyrinth, a nasty world.
In the end, it was his illusion that won based on the last line “l want to go home I want to put on my wings” that revolved on the notion that he was away of it being an illusion and he tries to turn it into his reality by putting on the wings and flying off. The two poems “Cirrus in Catechism Class” and “Cirrus and Deals” both us the same technique and basis yet have different intentions. They both use the historical story of Cirrus and Deals reflecting the journey they went through. Showing the creation of the wings, being trapped inside the labyrinth and flying too.
