I've just been browsing through some old things from sixth form college and came across this poem.

I studied Classical Civilisation all through school and sixth form and one of my favourite texts was Homer's 'Odyssey', which follows the journey of the Greek hero, Odysseus, as he returns home from the shores of Troy to his beloved homeland, Ithaka.

Back in Ithaka his wife and son, Penelope and Telemachus are waiting for him, but because he angered the sea god, Poseidon after blinding his son, Polyphemus the cyclops (still with me?!), Odysseus is cursed to have a long and painful journey home, full of trials and tribulations. Along with seeing beautiful ports like Phoenicia where he's greeted with lovely presents and a warm place to sleep, Odysseus and his crew meet with laistrygonians (cannibalistic giants), sirens (mermaids who lure men to rocky deaths with their beautiful, hypnotic singing) and more cyclops amongst many other monsters.

On our last Classical Civ lesson before our A-level exams, our much loved teacher gave us all a print out of the following poem, which felt so poignant as we faced the adventure of leaving home, going to uni, and entering a whole new stage of life.

And even now when I read it, I still think it's such a moving poem - see what you think.

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and 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 excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and 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 the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.


Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.


Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not 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 will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

CP Cavafy