GEORGE CABOT LODGE He strove with Gods and men in equal mood Of great endurance: Not alone his hands Wrought in wild seas and labored in strange lands, And not alone his patient strength withstood The clashing cliffs and Circe's perilous sands: Eager of some imperishable good He drave new pathways thro' the trackless flood Foreguarded, fearless, free from Fate's commands. How shall our faith discern the truth he sought? We too must watch and wander till our eyes, Turned skyward from the topmost tower of thought, Haply shall find the star that marked his goal, The watch-fire of transcendent liberties Lighting the endless spaces of the soul. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY Read the poem through. How did Ulysses strive with gods and men? Why can it be said that he did not labor alone? Look up the story of Circe and her palace.[10] What was the imperishable good that Ulysses sought? What does his experience have to do with our lives? What sort of freedom does the author speak of in the last few lines? This verse-form is called the sonnet. How many lines has it? Make out a scheme of the rhymes: _a b b a_, etc. Notice the change of thought at the ninth line. Do all sonnets show this change? EXERCISES Read several other sonnets; for instance, the poem _On the Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln_, on page 210, or _On First Looking into Chapman's Homer_, by John Keats, or _The Grasshopper and the Cricket_, by Leigh Hunt. Notice how these other sonnets are constructed. Why are they considered good? If possible, read part of what is said about the sonnet in _English Verse_, by R.M. Alden or in _Forms of English Poetry_, by C.F. Johnson, or in _Melodies of English Verse_, by Lewis Kennedy Morse; notice some of the examples given. Look in the good magazines for examples of the sonnet. COLLATERAL READINGS To the Grasshopper and the Cricket Leigh Hunt The Fish Answers (or, The Fish to the Man)[11] Leigh Hunt On the Grasshopper and Cricket John Keats On First Looking into Chapman's Homer John Keats Ozymandias P.B. Shelley The Sonnet R.W. Gilder The Odyssey (sonnet) Andrew Lang The Wine of Circe (sonnet) Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Automobile (sonnet)[12] Percy Mackaye The Sonnet William Wordsworth See also references for the _Odyssey_, p. 137, and for _Moly_, p. 84. A ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS (In _Suburban Sketches_)