Teaching Homer to Eighth Graders<\/p>\n
What appeals to them most is that Odysseus
\nwas one horny guy
\nmoving from goddess to nymph;
\nnot that he kept his vision
\nof Ithaca like a flame in his gut.<\/p>\n
And Telemachus \u2013 that wimp \u2013
\nturned out to be okay,
\nhe could have strung the bow
\nif his dad had let him.<\/p>\n
Argos, on the dungheap, rolls
\nhis eyes and dies,
\njoy in his doggy heart
\nwhen he hears his master’s voice.<\/p>\n
And Eurylochus-\u2013a fool to eat those cattle\u2013
\ngot what he deserved.<\/p>\n
Nausicaa? An idiot
\nto let a naked man
\nfrom the bushes by the river
\nnearly hug her about the knees.<\/p>\n
With what glee they read
\nthe bloody battle in the hall.
\nHow cool that Antinous
\ngot it in the throat
\nand that Melanthius
\nwas strung up on a brutal wall.<\/p>\n
How far we’ve come when they begin
\nto feel the complications of return
\nto greening Ithaca, and kneel in the orchard
\nwith Laertes weeping. The old guy
\nfooled by a son just beginning
\nthe ship-wrecked journey home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reprinted from Yalapaloosa Review.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alicia Hokanson\u2019s<\/a> poetry collections are\u00a0Insistent in the<\/em>\u00a0Skin<\/em> <\/a>(Brooding Heron Press, 1993), Mapping the Distance<\/em> <\/a>(King County Arts Commission Publication Prize, 1989), and Phosphorus<\/em><\/a> (Brooding Heron Press, 1984).\u00a0 She lives in Seattle and teaches at Lakeside School where she holds the Bleakney Chair in English.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Teaching Homer to Eighth Graders What appeals to them most is that Odysseus was one horny guy moving from goddess to nymph; not that he kept his vision of Ithaca like a flame in his gut. And Telemachus \u2013 that … Continue reading