ODYSSEUS
Reading edition
GEORGE CABOT LODGE
He strove with Gods and men in equal mood Of great endurance: Not alone his hands Wrought in wild seas and labored in strange lands, And not alone his patient strength withstood The clashing cliffs and Circe's perilous sands: Eager of some imperishable good He drave new pathways thro' the trackless flood Foreguarded, fearless, free from Fate's commands. How shall our faith discern the truth he sought? We too must watch and wander till our eyes, Turned skyward from the topmost tower of thought, Haply shall find the star that marked his goal, The watch-fire of transcendent liberties Lighting the endless spaces of the soul.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
Read the poem through. How did Ulysses strive with gods and men? Why can it be said that he did not labor alone? Look up the story of Circe and her palace.[10] What was the imperishable good that Ulysses sought? What does his experience have to do with our lives? What sort of freedom does the author speak of in the last few lines?
This verse-form is called the sonnet. How many lines has it? Make out a scheme of the rhymes: a b b a, etc. Notice the change of thought at the ninth line. Do all sonnets show this change?
EXERCISES
Read several other sonnets; for instance, the poem On the Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln, on page 210, or On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, by John Keats, or The Grasshopper and the Cricket, by Leigh Hunt.
Notice how these other sonnets are constructed. Why are they considered good?
If possible, read part of what is said about the sonnet in English Verse, by R.M. Alden or in Forms of English Poetry, by C.F. Johnson, or in Melodies of English Verse, by Lewis Kennedy Morse; notice some of the examples given.
Look in the good magazines for examples of the sonnet.
COLLATERAL READINGS
To the Grasshopper and the CricketLeigh Hunt
The Fish Answers (or, The Fish to the Man)[11]Leigh Hunt
On the Grasshopper and CricketJohn Keats
On First Looking into Chapman's HomerJohn Keats
OzymandiasP.B. Shelley
The SonnetR.W. Gilder
The Odyssey (sonnet)Andrew Lang
The Wine of Circe (sonnet)Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Automobile[12] (sonnet)Percy Mackaye
The SonnetWilliam Wordsworth
See also references for the Odyssey, p. 137, and for Moly, p. 84.