Poetry Analysis Chart

Selection Title: “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus” Author: Ovid translated by Ralph Humphries

Speaker—voice of a poem
Third person omniscient

Foreshadowed fate: “He kissed his son (Good-bye if he had know it)” “not knowing he was dealing with his downfall” “O fatal art”

Sound—alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme, end rhyme, onomatopoeia, repetition

Alliteration—“Homesick for homeland Daedalus hated” “work and warning” “water will weigh the wings down” “far off, far down some
fisherman” “His cheeks were wet with tears”

Assonance—“And all looked up in absolute amazement at those airborne above”

Imagery—words that appeal to the senses

“melted in the fierce heat”
“soared higher, higher drawn to the vast heavens”

Figurative Language—similes, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbol, irony, apostrophe, paradox, allegory, parable
Personification- “but the sea held him” “O fatal art” “the blue sea hushed him”

Simile-“So they looked like the wings of birds, most surely” “To let a feather light as down” “As fearful as any bird launching the little
nestlings out of high nest into thin air?

Metaphor-“He laid out feathers in order, first the smallest, A little larger next it, and so continued, The way that pan-pipes rise in
gradual sequence.” “At those airborne above. They must be gods!”

Mood/Tone