Wee also lerne by Icarus how good it is to bee
In meane estate and not to clymb too hygh
Thomas Wyatt's 'Stand, whoso list, upon the slipper wheel of high estate' comes to mind: "let me here rejoice, and use my life in quietness".
But there's Lermontov's Demon - his effort to get to the clouds "Стремясь достать до облаков" ... a Romantic "fatal man" cursed by his immortality ... Печальный Демон, дух изгнанья ... A sorrowful demon, spirit of exile ... he sees Tamara at her wedding dance, destroys his rival. When he kisses her there is a direct echo of Icarus in the imagery, the days hot sun melting white wax ...
Она противиться не смела,
Слабела, таяла, горела
От неизвестного огня,
Как белый воск от взоров дня.
She dared not resist,
She weakened, melted, burned
In the unknown fire
Like white wax in the gaze of day.
He destroys her. This links to the romantic fatality of Oscar Wilde:
Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
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