Ithaka Translated by Edmund Keeley

• Although the voice of the poem describes the journey as something joyful and hopeful, the ending is rather upsetting.
  • “Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey. / Without her you wouldn’t have set out. / She has nothing left to give you now.”
  • I think that through this stanza, the idea that going back home is not as significant as one might hope is quite evident as it clearly states that their home has nothing that it can give to them and that they need to prepare themselves with what they can in order to stay at home and make it feel like what it used to.
• The ending is also quite confusing, as it leaves the readers questioning what “Ithakas,” mean?
  • An idea was that it could act as a symbol of home and a place of comfort and familiarity, but it could also represent the journeys that one has undertaken and the suffering that one has had to endure before coming back home. We can also question why one might be set on this specific journey and the significance of how that could impact others.
    • For example, the journey that Odysseus has taken after the Battle of Troy, might have a reason behind it. Perhaps the Gods set him on this path in order to portray his son, Telemachus, a certain way.

Parable of the Hostages By Louise Glück

• I felt that there was a lot more going on in this poem, which is why I had to read it a couple of times in order to process it.
• Although I preferred the other poem, there was one line that I did really like.
  • “what if war is just a male version of dressing up, a game devised to avoid profound spiritual questions?”
  • Although there are many texts that have mentioned the connection of war to men, I have never thought of it like this. However, the concept of war and battling others is brought up many times in the Odyssey and plays a huge part in Odysseus’s journey.
  • This line also implies that women dress up in order to avoid dealing with much more significant issues.