Poetry Close Reading Essay (with Poem) #1

Ithaka by Constantine Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka

 hope your road is a long one,

 full of adventure, full of discovery.

 Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon -

 don't be afraid of them:

 you'll never find things like that on your way

 as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,

 as long as a rare sensation

 touches your spirit and your body.

 Laistrygonians, Cyclops, wild Poseidon -

 you won't encounter them

 unless you bring them along inside your soul,

 unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

 Hope your road is a long one.

 May there be many summer mornings when,

 with what pleasure, what joy,

 you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;

 may you stop at Phoenician trading stations

 to buy fine things,

 mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

 sensual perfumes of every kind -

 as many sensual perfumes as you can;

 and may you visit many Egyptian cities

 to learn and go on learning from those who know.

 Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

 Arriving there is what you're destined for.

 But don't hurry the journey at all.

 Better if it lasts for years,

 so you're old by the time you reach the island,

 wealthy with all you've gained on the way,

 not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

 Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.

 Without her you wouldn't have set out.

 She has nothing left to give you now.

 And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.

 Wise as you have become, so full of experience,

 you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Prompt: Read carefully the following poem by ________ about ______________. Then write an essay in which you describe the speaker’s attitude toward _______________________. Using specific references to the text, show how the use of language reveals the speaker’s attitude.