Calypso Scorned

An Ekphrastic Sonnet

By D. J. ReddallPublished 2 years ago • 1 min read

Arnold Bocklin, "Odysseus & Calypso," 1883

Odysseus, you hick, you hot hayseed

You brash bumpkin from rocky Ithaca!

Athena to your every need paid heed;

Your smile was my pain’s prolegomena

I am a deathless goddess, beautiful

Each of my sneezes is a symphony

My sweet allure is irrefutable

But you, cunning peasant, rejected me

For I failed to be your fair Penelope

Making and unmaking Laertes’ shroud

She showed vile suitors more than they could see

And made her sweaty husband smugly proud

He left me here on cool Ogygia

I was vanquished by mortal nostalgia!

I write because my time is limited and my imagination is not.

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