Sailing
It doesn't take us long to realize that we're dealing with a bunch of sailors in this poem, as the opening line begins with "And then went down to the ship" (1). Beginning with the word "And" gives...
Dead Spirits
Poor Odysseus. All the guy wants to do is descend into the underworld to have a friendly chat with a blind prophet. Is that too much to ask? But no, the second the guy gets into the land of the dea...
Sacrificial Objects
When we first read that Odysseus and his crew "Bore sheep aboard" (4) their ship, it makes sense to think that they're bringing these animals so they'll have some grub for their long journey. But n...
The Edge of the World
It's not easy to catch the reference at first, but when Odysseus talks about sailing into "the Kimmerian lands" (12) at the beginning of Canto I, he's alluding to the lands belonging to the Cimmeri...
The Golden Bough
At the end of "Canto I," Pound suddenly leaves his translation of Homer and talks about the Greek goddess Aphrodite holding something called the "golden bough of Argicida" (76). A bit of research t...