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Analysis

Shift

  • End of line 3
  • Before: monotonous
  • After: confusion, betrayal, abondonment
  • Through review of his adventures
  • Unspecified illusions

Basics

  • Unrhymed free verse

  • Title: Odysseus
  • straightforward
  • immediately provides contrast

Anaphora: same/identical- emphazises monotony of Odysseus’ meaningless adventures

Connotation

mundane

sad, hopeless, given up (receding hairline)

defeated

bleak, crumbled

1 Always the setting forth was the same,

2 Same sea, same dangers waiting for him

3 As though he had got nowhere but older.

4 Behind him on the receding shore

5 The identical reproaches, and somewhere

6 Out before him, the unravelling patience

7 He was wedded to. There were the islands

8 Each with its woman and twining welcome

9 To be navigated, and one to call “home.”

10 The knowledge of all that he betrayed

...

16 And which, improbable, remote, and true,

17 Was the one he kept sailing home to?

: bleak and weary

Attitude

trapped

deep sadness

empty, alone

Odysseus by W.S. Merwin

Mythology

10 The knowledge of all that he betrayed

11 Grew till it was the same whether he stayed

12 Or went. Therefore he went. And what wonder

13 If sometimes he could not remember

14 Which was the one who wished on his departure

15 Perils that he could never sail through,

16 And which, improbable, remote, and true,

17 Was the one he kept sailing home to?

  • refers collectively to stories and beliefs from a society or many societies

1 Always the setting forth was the same,

2 Same sea, same dangers waiting for him

3 As though he had got nowhere but older.

4 Behind him on the receding shore

5 The identical reproaches, and somewhere

6 Out before him, the unravelling patience

7 He was wedded to. There were the islands

8 Each with its woman and twining welcome

9 To be navigated, and one to call “home.”

  • first written pieces of literature recorded oral myths

"Odysseus" cont.

  • myth poems direct our attention to the concerns of today

Paraphrase: Dealing with the same old, same old for 20 years got him nothing but older.

Title again: a new view of Odysseus

The Odyssey

  • Greek hero Odysseus
  • Journey home after Trojan War (10 years)

  • 10 more years to reach Ithaca
  • Citizens think he is dead
  • Penelope and Telemachus stuck with suitors
  • Son searches for father

Theme: Heroes aren’t all as good as we think they are. They really are human and are therefore not perfect.

  • Posiodon vs. Athena
  • Odysseus returns home; slays suitors

Signifier: When adventure becomes mundane, man becomes lost at sea in more ways than one.

Odysseus

Odysseus:

i dont know how to get this to look like the other slides.... help lol... I just put in my thoughts on the google docs thing

How would you describe Odysseus?

Analysis

Contrast

But W. S. Merwin describes him a little differently...

Rhythm/meter/rhyme scheme- unrhymed free verse

Title: Straightforward ("Song" is beautiful)

Paraphrase: Even if Odysseus wasn’t faithful while he was gone, you, Penelope, were unfaithful also. So greet him warmly and just be glad that he is home.

Odysseus:

Penelope

Connotation:

"Little soul" (line 1)

" It beehoves you" (line 6)

Suggests Penelope's inferiority/childishness due to her mistakes

Theme: Heroes aren't all as good as we think they are. They really are human and are therefore not perfect.

•Brave and heroic in myth, unfaithfulness is downplayed

•Cheated on his wife multiple times in reality

•inspiring, patient queen who ignored multiple suitors in myth

•royalty isn’t above humanity, most likely cheated on her husband

Attitude: frank, slightly reprimanding

Penelope's Song by Louise Glück

Title: Penelope's Song wasn't so beautiful

Shifts: none

Signifier: No hero or heroine is above being human and having some flawed morals.

1 Little soul, little perpetually undressed one,

2 do now as I bid you, climb

3 the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree;

4 wait at the top, attentive, like

5 a sentry or look-out. He will be home soon;

6 it behooves you to be

7 generous. You have not been completely

8 perfect either; with your troublesome body

9 you have done things you shouldn’t

10 discuss in poems. Therefore

11 call out to him over the open water, over the bright water

12 with your dark song, with your grasping,

13 unnatural song—passionate,

14 like Marie Callas. Who

15 wouldn’t want you? Whose most demonic appetite

16 could you possibly fail to answer? Soon

17 he will return from wherever he goes in the meantime,

18 suntanned from his time away, wanting

19 his grilled chicken. Ah, you must greet him,

20 you must shake the boughs of the tree

21 to get his attention,

22 but carefully, carefully, lest

23 his beautiful face be marred

24 by too many falling needles.

  • The Odyssey
  • Odysseus - W.S. Merwin
  • Specific analysis
  • Penelope's Song - Louise Glück
  • Specific analysis
  • Contrast

Myths: Odysseus & Penelope's Song

Lauren Hedges and Emily Ulry

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