Published on Modern American Poetry (https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org)


John Hatcher: On "O Daedalus, Fly Away Home"

In 'O Daedalus, Fly Away Home’ a Georgia slave clings to hisĀ remembrances of Africa and recalls a myth of his 'gran' who 'spread his arms and/ flew away home'.

The poem literally portrays a slave's nostalgia for his homeland. Symbolically Hayden's combining of Greek and African myth employs an image of flight, which becomes in several later poems a figurative expression of a spiritual condition. More specifically flight becomes in Hayden's poetry a symbol of spiritual transcendence and detachment. Significantly, this image of flight is here contemplated during the nighttime.

Publication Status: 
Excerpted Criticism [1]
Publication: 
- Private group -
Criticism Target: 
Robert Hayden [2]
Author: 
John Hatcher [3]
Poem: 
O Daedalus, Fly Away Home [4]

Source URL: https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/criticism/john-hatcher-o-daedalus-fly-away-home

Links
[1] https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/category/publication-status/excerpted-criticism
[2] https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/poet/robert-hayden
[3] https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/creator/john-hatcher
[4] https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/poem/o-daedalus-fly-away-home