Poetry for Students, Volume 35

efforts have added up to. Energy spent now
and well-aware of the costs of warfare in
human life and its effect on families back
home, Odysseus questions the value of his
endeavor and his journey. Gone so long from
home, he tries in vain to imagine his son and
the fatherless life the boy has lived. There is an
existential despair in this Odysseus that leads
him to suspect it does not even matter who
won the war. What matters now is the carnage,
the fallen soldiers, the time lapsed and
now lost in his absence from home and son.
The suggestion is that a younger Odysseus
just setting off or engaged with his fellow
Greeks in warfare might have felt the rush of

excitement and the self-justification of victory

in the heat of battle. But now weary with an

overlong, circuitous journey home, caught

now in a nowhere both psychological and

geographic, Odysseus sees the past very differ-

ently, questions its reputed value, and fails

to see why his years have been spent as they

have been. In all, the point of view in this

poem is of an older man reflecting on what

might have been had he been allowed to take

a different path. Regret more than guilt is

the emotion he experiences in looking back.

To make matters worse, his lack of energy

erodes any hope a possible future might hold

for him.

TOPICS FOR

FURTHER

STUDY

 Do some research in art history, locating

images of Attic pottery and classical sculp-

ture that depict characters and scenes from

Greek mythology and the Trojan war. Make

a PowerPoint presentation for your class in

which you show these images and discuss

them with your fellow students.

 Read about Heinrich Schliemann and his

early archeological efforts to locate Troy

and inquire about any archeological digs in

your area. Write a report on Schliemann’s life

and what parts of the Homeric myth were

verified by artifacts discovered at the site.

Include in your paper description of archeo-

logical work, if any, done in your area.

 Find images you can copy of ancient Greek

weaponry and armor and make a poster that

shows how the ancient Greeks and Trojans

prepared for and conducted warfare.

 Research the story of the Trojan horse and

its use in the fall of Troy. Then write a short

story in which your characters allude to the

Trojan horse and concoct a similar trick of

deception in order to defeat their enemy.

 With two or three classmates present a Wag-

ing Peace panel discussion in which students

role-play key people in the Trojan conflict and

in a mutually respectful dialogue discuss their

grievances, acknowledge their wrongs, and

come to a diplomatic agreement that settles

the conflict without military engagement.

Write a paper in which you describe the

costs of warfare, including weaponry, loss

of human life, and urban and environmen-

tal destruction. Be as inclusive as possible,

estimating such costs as to children’s health

and education in the invaded country and

the psychological impact on a surviving

population and including descriptions of

damage to ecosystems as well as urban cen-

ters. Then identify and describe global

agencies that assist war-torn countries in

rebuilding efforts. Give statistics on the

budgets of such agencies and evaluate

their effectiveness.

Study the Oedipus complex based on Sig-

mund Freud’s explanation and write a

paper in which you discuss relevant parts of

Brodsky’s biography and how the theory and

those relevant parts suggest a psychological

interpretation of ‘‘Odysseus to Telemachus.’’

Odysseus to Telemachus