Just like Icarus, the speaker admits that he too was overly ambitious and ‘leaped at the sun’. Icarus, taken aback with the ability of flight, flies too close to the sun, which causes the wax in his wings melt and his eventual fall which kills him. Icarus was the son of the great Inventor Daedalus and the story revolves around the escape of these two men from a high tower where they were held prisoners by making wings out of bird feathers and wax. It begins with the poet giving a subtle reference to the old Greek mythological tale of Icarus and Daedalus. The third stanza of the poem is the speaker’s discourse on what all he did for his country. The patriot is seen as a public hero in this stanza who is greeted with much love and affection by the commoners. It can be assumed at this point in the poem that it concerned the common people highly, and they were happy on the occasion. Perhaps it was a victory in war or the assemblage for fighting one, or winning a popular election to an office, or being nominated as a ruler, or maybe something else. It is only logical to assume that this grand celebration must be as a result of some achievement on the speaker’s part. People were overwhelmingly delighted to greet their hero and were enthusiastic to see him as he passed by. The spires of the church – pointed tapering roofs we generally see on old cathedrals and similar buildings – were covered with flaming flags that the people had put up for a celebration. People standing on the roofs of their houses cheered for him as he passed by. The path was festooned with these flower for him. His walking path was covered with lots and lots of rose petals, with myrtle mixed in them.
He is reminiscing the past, and he builds a picture for us as he remembers that day.
The poem starts with the patriot describing an event – a grand public welcome – that took place a year ago on that very same day. The church-spires flamed, such flags they had, The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
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