Question

Feature
Read the selection in your Student Edition and choose the best answer to each question.

Icarus’s Flight
by Stephen Dobyns

Click here to read Icarus's Flight.

Question
The poet begins a sentence at the end of each stanza and does not finish it until the first line of the next stanza, as in lines 3–5 of the poem. Which statement best describes why the poet uses this structure?

Responses

He uses it to change the rhythm of ideas throughout the poem.
He uses it to change the rhythm of ideas throughout the poem.

He uses it to make the reader think about what is happening in each stanza.
He uses it to make the reader think about what is happening in each stanza.

He uses it to maintain the flow of the poem and the feeling of being drawn downward.
He uses it to maintain the flow of the poem and the feeling of being drawn downward.

He uses it to make the reader go back and read the previous stanza to understand the next one.

Answer 1

He uses it to maintain the flow of the poem and the feeling of being drawn downward.

Enjambment across stanzas keeps the line and thought moving forward, producing continuous momentum that echoes Icarus’s steady descent.