Icarus

In the poem “Waiting for Icarus” by Muriel Rukeyser, a woman tells the story of her relationship with a man. She loved him and trusted him but discovers that he betrayed her. The setting of the poem is on a beach where this woman has been waiting all day for this man to arrive. While she is waiting, she reminisces about the promises he made to her and about how he confided his dreams and …

…waiting for him all day. She had faith in something that wasn’t true. She is ashamed that she fell for his dishonesty. She is embarrassed that her mother and the girls were right about him after all. She says, “I would have liked to try those wings myself,” meaning that she should have left him. She knows that if she had left him, she would have felt better than what she is feeling now.