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View Full Version : need help in Oscar Wilde's poem



snow.white
01-23-2011, 03:13 PM
Can anyone help me with this poem i have to do its critical anaylsis :(

Impression De Voyage by Oscar Wilde

The sea was sapphire coloured, and the sky
Burned like a heated opal through the air;
We hoisted sail; the wind was blowing fair
For the blue lands that to the eastward lie.
From the steep prow I marked with quickening eye
Zakynthos, every olive grove and creek,
Ithaca's cliff, Lycaon's snowy peak,
And all the flower-strewn hills of Arcady.
The flapping of the sail against the mast,
The ripple of the water on the side,
The ripple of girls' laughter at the stern,
The only sounds:- when 'gan the West to burn,
And a red sun upon the seas to ride,
I stood upon the soil of Greece at last!

KATAKOLO.

Uroboros1989
01-23-2011, 04:46 PM
We should take into account that Wilde spent some time in Greece as an undergraduate. To my mind he describes his impression that was made by Greek landscape, people, etc.
I think that there are many references in his works and biography that are connected with his persona. Consider his homosexualism and pederasty that were commonly "cultivated" in ancient Greece. But i don't think that in this poem there are such references. ;)