Author Question: Who is the speaker of this poem? What details tell us so? What will be an ideal ... (Read 443 times)

sjones · **on:** Jul 20, 2018

Who is the speaker of this poem? What details tell us so?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is your interpretation of the last line?

What will be an ideal response?

iceage · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

In the first few lines of the poem, the speaker refers to himself as a king; in lines 914 we learn that he has traveled widely on the sea, and lines 1516 that he fought in the Trojan War; the clincher comes in line 33 with its reference to my son, mine own Telemachus. Even without the title, we would by now know for certain that the speaker is Ulysses (the Roman name for Odysseus, the eponymous hero of Homers Odyssey).

Answer to Question 2

After the techniques previously employed in the poemlines of increasing length and rhythmic freedom, and one set of widely spaced rimes in each stanza (Camaro / arrow, clich / decay, beware / hair) the rhetorical elegance of the next-to-last line (which is a perfect iambic pentameter), the brief last line and the quick rime combine to create a sudden shift in sound and movement giving the poem a sharp and decisive ending. This tonal shift reinforces the content of the last line, which also signals a shift, one that makes us re-evaluate all that has come before. The title (as well as the text) is ironic in applying a quiz like those in trashy contemporary magazines to an austere classical myth, and also ironic in using the term First Love, with its connotations of innocence and adolescence, in connection with such disturbing details. But the title and the text also seem quite serious in delineating the wide range of emotions, urges, impulses, and experiences that go into the making of a relationship. Indeed, all of the above appears to be the correct answer, and also suggests that the tawdry present and glamorous antiquity are not contrasted with one another; instead, they are one and the same.