Icarus

We were given four questions and we had to research two of them. I did the poem "The River" and also the Icarus story. I think these where the most interesting out of the four of them as the poem you can find out the meaning and look at the structure of it e.g. if it repeats.


The river I found a summery of each verse of the poem:-


The River's a wanderer,
A nomad, a tramp
He never chooses one place
To set up his camp


Verse 1:- The river flows/moves without stopping. Wanderer- a person who walks one place to another without hurry/ purpose. Nomad- member of group who move around with no permanent home. Tramp- no home, moves place to place.


The River's a winder;
Through valley and hill
He twists and he turns,
He just cannot be still.


Verse 2:- River doesn't move in a straight line, will turn left/right. Winder- turns/rolls something. Valley- gaps between hill. Twist- bends.


The River's a hoarder
And he buries down deep
Those little treasures
That he wants to keep.


Verse 3:- River collects the things that it find as it is moving, hides these things deep down at the bottom of the river. Hoarder- collects things. Buries- hide treasures/valuables.


The River's a baby,
He gurgles and hums,
And sounds like he's happily
Sucking his thumbs.


Verse 4:- Soft sound when flows as if the river is happy. The soft sounds are like a baby's gurgle/hum. Gurgles and hums- baby makes bubbly sounds, continuous sounds like a bee.


The River's a singer,
As he dances along,
The countryside echoes
The notes of his song.


Verse 5:- Sound of the flowing river is like a song, movement of flowing river is like a dance, when the river flows down through the village the river's sounds can be heard by the villagers. Echoes-bounce back.


The River's a monster,
Hungry and vexed,
He's gobbled up trees
And he'll swallow you next.


Verse 6:- River is like a monster when it floods, floods can destroy animals, plants, humans and homes. Vexed-angry. Gobbled- eat noisily & quickly. Swallow- pass down the throat.


The Icarus story, I read over the story and explored what the different moods could be. There would be a moment of happiness due to the bird like theme, feeling as though I could fly. I could do this by doing jumps and the use of elevation. It would be very up and feel free. Whereas there is also a feeling of sadness and worried like when he falls to his death, this part could be much more grounded and fluid. I can show the contrast using different dynamics like levels.


I chose Icarus to do out of these two for a solo as I feel like I can play around with the moods and it has more depth in which I can perform in my solo. It also has a bigger contrast as it has lots of happiness then ends in death which are on complete opposite ends of the scale.