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Ogygia

Ogygia was green and fair,
A dreamy vision to behold,
Beyond the wars for blood and gold,
Far from the weight of mortal care.
Afloat a luminescent sea
That great Poseidon held aloft,
The waves came to her bright and soft,
In tides of singing pageantry.
And so it was I landed there:
One summer midnight long ago,
My shipwrecked body felt the tow
Of moonlit currents everywhere.
No sooner had I washed ashore,
Than health and strength to me returned.
Above, strange constellations burned,
Stars I had never seen before.
Ogygia had welcomed me,
Had taken pity on my life,
Had stayed the cold and salty knife
That kissed my thread of destiny.
I wondered, was it chance or choice
That saved my life against the odds?
But even as I thanked the gods,
A wave of sadness drowned my voice.
Ogygia, queen of the sea,
Your silver bones and golden sand
Are pittance to my native land,
Whose shores I ruled… and I was free!

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Patricia Rogers Crozier has been published in The Washington Post. She holds a B.S. in Physics from Mississippi College. She resides in Gulf Breeze, Florida, where she works at the bakery in Publix.

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12 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    I detect much greater depths to your poem than the beautifully crafted rhyme, well-chosen words, and images portrayed. For whomever “I” is in your poem, it seems there is a felicitously pleasing change in life that has led to contentment and thankfulness with their lot while reflecting a sadness and longing for that previous portion of living that has passed. That is the feeling anyway that I got from my own perspective and one that fits me as well.

    Reply
  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    This is a dramatic monologue, and the speaker is Odysseus. He is washed up on the shore of the island of Ogygia by the wrath of the sea god Poseidon, and the beautiful nymph Calypso keeps him there for many years as her sex slave.

    A minor difficulty in the poem is that the poet uses the name “Ogygia” not just for the island itself, but as an alternate name for the nymph Calypso. This follows the old tradition, still seen in Shakespeare, of calling a ruler by the name of the territory that he controls: “Gloucester” for the Duke of Gloucester, “England” for the King of England):

    Ogygia had welcomed me,
    Had taken pity on my life,
    Had stayed the cold and salty knife
    That kissed my thread of destiny.

    The “cold and salty knife” is a metaphor for either the sea, or for Poseidon, who was Odysseus’ enemy and who wanted to prevent the man’s homecoming to Ithaka.

    The whole poem is beautiful, and the last four lines are especially fine:

    Ogygia, queen of the sea,
    Your silver bones and golden sand
    Are pittance to my native land,
    Whose shores I ruled… and I was free!

    This captures the deep pathos of the situation: Odysseus is in a sensual paradise, but the loveliness of the island (and of its mistress) does not console him for his homesickness, and for his absence from his beloved wife Penelope. “Silver bones” and “golden sand” are a wonderful figure for a tempting sensuality that is at root unsatisfying for a man who is under compulsion.

    Reply
  3. Mia

    Thank you for this wonderful poem and thank you Prof. Salemi for your very helpful explanation
    There have been so many fine poems on SCP and so many fine comments , much better than I could offer and so I have not been commenting much recently.
    But this poem touches on something that I am so familiar with. Homesickness. Having to live away from my home country because it was invaded by Turkey has not been easy. I have been asking myself lately why, when I love where I live do I constantly feel homesick and surprisingly more as the years pass.

    So, Thank you for providing a little respite and balm on homesickness with this wonderful poem.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      So, Mia, are you a Greek Cypriot? Better that than an Armenian, I suppose.

      Reply
      • Mia

        Thank you , I really appreciate your comment and your interest. Better than an Armenian? I find that tragedy haunting but the decimation of Christian Greece is hardly registered.
        Legally I am classed as British, genetically Greek, perhaps a little bit of Jewish? The first Christians were after all Jews. My family name is Solomonides. Anyway a Cypriot whose ancestors survived the Ottoman Empire resulting in my birth. I have researched the past and have found that in prior to the Ottoman Empire Cyprus was part of Italy. at that time there were around a million Greeks in Cyprus , (also lots of Jews and synagogues) that is approx 1570. When the British acquired Cyprus from the Turks in 1870, the population was down to a quarter of a million.
        My mother told me stories from her great grandmothers’ living during the O. Empire. They had to put soot on their face to go and work in the fields so they would look unattractive in case they met with any overlords with a wondering eye and where then abducted. Any brothers trying to save their sister would then be killed.
        I am sure you also know that young christian boys would be abducted too and trained to fight in the army and defend islam. There is a word for it beginning with J and I have to look up the spelling!
        Greece one of the oldest civilisations in the world now has a population of 12 million.
        Asia Minor where Paul established the seven churches of Asia with Greeks is now called Turkey with a population of 80 million muslims.
        Christians driven out systematically or killed, a holocaust? There is proof of the Armenian massacre and yet it is denied.
        All I know the suffering of four hundred years of ottoman rule is genetically imprinted in myself.
        During the 1990s I used to tell my friends that I worried about a certain religion and they laughed and all without exception said,
        It will never happen in Britain. I still see them and they are not laughing now.
        Apologies for the long reply but I am grateful for the chance to write about it. I think all of this should be better known.

        On a lighter note the Greek word for Cyprus is Kipros and I have cousins named Kip. Also lots of Andrews.
        We are not related are we?!
        Thank you and Best wishes, Mia

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Mia, the word with a J is “Janissaries,” referring to those young men (many of them Christian subjects) who were drafted into military service by the Ottoman empire.

        The Armenian genocide of 1915 is now recognized as a real historical event, and it is still denied only by the Turkish government. I have the first edition of the documentary report by the American ambassador that outlines in meticulous detail the horrific atrocity. The Turks only make themselves look stupid and pig-headed by continuing to deny reality.

      • C.B. Anderson

        If we are related, Mia, it is only in spirit. I am all western European. I could be wrong, but the only people who now deny the Armenian holocaust are the Turks, and the only surprise is that they are capable of collective shame to that extent.

  4. Adam Sedia

    This is a beautifully crafted, sensorily rich, and highly evocative piece full of lush imagery that portrays the internal longing for an idealized place. I wonder if this was perhaps inspired by your surroundings in Florida.

    Also, Ogygia is a double reference, referring not only to the island in the Odyssey, but to the primordial land of King Ogyges in Greek myth, before the flood of Deucalion. Whether this was intended or not, the double reference portrays the land described as an unattainable ideal, a land of myth.

    Great work.

    Reply
  5. C.B. Anderson

    This is first-rate stuff indeed. The lines follow one another like clockwork to create a convincing narrative, which is all anyone can ask for.

    Reply
  6. Mia

    Oh my goodness did not realise how long my reply was going to be.
    Apologies dear Patricia.
    It is so obvious to me now how suffering is universal regardless of the circumstances.

    Reply
  7. Margaret Coats

    Patricia, these are choice images to create a vision that varies during the course of the poem. The compulsion felt by the speaker at the end is foreshadowed (apparently pleasantly) by “My shipwrecked body felt the tow/Of moonlit currents.” But when his voice is drowned after thanking the gods, it’s a good technique to italicize his sad, unspoken final lines. Very much enjoyed your work!

    Reply
  8. Morrison Handley-Schachler

    This is a beautiful poem, based on Odysseus’ shipwreck on Calypso’s island in Homer’s Odyssey and well captures the mixture of relief and uncertainty of the hero on being cast up in an unknown land. Gozo, the actual island of Ogygia, is worth a visit on any tour of Malta, which is crammed with cultural and historical riches. Sadly the old tourist attraction of Calypso’s cave has long since collapsed under its own weight.

    Reply

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