Constantine P. Cavafy was a renowned Greek poet, who worked as a civil servant and journalist. He has published more than 154 poems in which the most important ones were written after he turning forty. He started his career as a journalist. He published his first poetry from 1891–1904 in the form of broadsheets and those were mainly for his friends. He is currently considered as one among the finest Greek poets and his poems are being taught in schools in Greece.
Cavafy was a perfectionist and so he was very careful in doing his work with every single line of his poetry. He did not follow the rhyme pattern and by any chance his poems had, then it was mainly used to show the irony of the context he wrote. His poems were mainly from his own experience along with a wide and deep knowledge of history. He is known for his brilliant usage of historical imaginary.
“Ithaca” is one among his most important works which was inspired by the Homeric return journey of Odysseus to his home island. The theme of the poem is the happiness found in one’s journey of life and how the maturity of the soul increases over a period of time, still the journey continues and that is all a traveler could ask for.
This poem has a great deeper meaning that how it is. This poem when read for the first time may feel like it shows the voyage of a guy, overcoming some imaginary difficulties. However in the Greek point of view, it shows an inner self quest for rediscovering who you really are. It also depicts the celebration of human nature and achievement of one’s goal, no matter whatever hurdles you may have to go pass through.
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Ithaca is a depiction of one’s destination in life. Here, in the poem it says that once a destination is visualized, then no obstacles could defeat you on the journey to reach it.
Everyone sets a goal in life, no matter whether it is big or small. The question comes, when there are many difficulties that one has to cross through to reach the goal, whether one maintains the patience and strength and remains focused to achieve the goal when we face the extremities of difficulties in life.
However, what happens in spite striving to achieve the goal, if we have not achieved the goal, then should w consider ourselves to be failures? The poem says that even we do not reach our goal; we should not consider ourselves as failures as the first step to success is to start the voyage to the destination. As during the journey, each stage offer you an experience that cannot be obtained from elsewhere, each hurdle is a lesson to be learnt, so that by the time you reach a place, valuable lessons in life would have been learnt, which is more important.
A great poem, which leaves the reader initially confused, yet with understanding the inner depth, it make us realize how important it is to see ourselves focused and inspires us to remain calm and focused, no matter however difficult and challenging the situation may be.
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“Ithaca” is a great poem, with a great lesson.