Penelope

The suitors sinn'd, but with a fair excuse,
Whom all this elegance might well seduce;
Nor can our censure on the husband fall,
Who, for a wife so lovely, slew them all.
William Cowper

John Milton concludes the sonnet, “On His Blindness,” with the thought, “They also
serve who only stand and wait.” This conclusion fits not only the U.S. Coast Guard
(whose motto it is) but also Penelope, who waits twenty years. However, she proves to be
more than a match for her wandering spouse in intelligence, in bravery, in deception.

Literature

Alegra, Claribel. "Letter to an Exile." Fugues. Trans. D. J. Flakoll. Willimantic, CT:
Curbstone, 1993. [Spanish and parallel English translations.]

Austin, Annemarie. "Back and Forth," "She," "Penelope." The Flaying of Marsyas.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 1995. 13, 52, 55.

Barnett, Lisa. "Penelope-in-Progress." Classical Outlook 77 (2000): 71. "Her subject
matter is the warp and weft / of pure design . . ." [a sonnet]

Cowper, William. "On Flaxman's Penelope." Poems.Ed. Hugh I'Anson Fausset. London:
J. M. Dent & Sons, 1952. 164.

Darling, Robert. "Penelope." Classical Outlook(Winter 1997): 63.

Davie, Donald. "Penelope." Collected Poems. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1990.

DeNicola, Deborah, ed. Orpheus and Company: Contemporary Poems on Greek
Mythology.
Hanover, NH: UP of New England, 1999.
Christie, A. V. "Penelope in Spring." 90.
Collins, Martha. "Homecoming." 93-95.
Ehret, Terry. "A Second Look at Penelope." 96.
Heitzman, Judith Page. "After Odysseus." 106.
Mirollo, Gabriella. "Waiting for Odysseus." 119.
Pollitt, Katha. "Penelope Writes." 120-21.
Shapiro, Alan. "Calypso, Penelope." 124-27.
Warwick, Ioanna-Veronika. "Archaic Penelope." 131-32.
White, Carolyn. from The Voyage of Penelope. 135-37.
Young, Ellen Roberts. "Her Story." 138.

Dube, Janet. "Penelope."Dancing theTightrope:New L ove Poems by W omen. Eds. Barbara
Burford, Lindsay MacRae, Sylvia Paskin. Peter Bedrick, 1988.

Drew, Bernard. "Penelope Forsaken."Helen andOther Poems.London: A. C. Fifield, 1912.
82-85.

Durrell, Lawrence. "Penelope."Coll ectedPoems, 1931-1974. Ed. James A. Brigham. New
York: Viking, 1992.

Fair brother, M. Joyce. "Penelope." Online Available October 1992.
< http://www.ume.maine.edu/~cofed/temp/joyce/Penelope.html>

Fallon, Padraic. "Kiltartan Legend."NewOxf ord B ook of I rish V erse. Trans. and ed.
Thomas Kinsella. New York: Oxford UP, 1986. 339.

Fowles, John. "During the Voyage."Poems. New York: Ecco, 1973.

Glück, Louise. "Penelope's Song."Meadowlands. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco, 1996. 3. [46 discrete
poems.]

Graham, Jorie. "Self-Portrait as Hurry and Delay."TheEnd of B eauty. New York: Ecco,
1987. 48-52.

Grossman, Allen. "Berlin 1955."AHarlot's Hire. Cambridge, MA: Walker de Berry, 1961.
39-40.

H. D. [Hilda Doolittle.] "At Ithaca."H.D. CollectedPoems, 1912-1914. Ed. Louis L. Martz.
New York: New Directions Books, 1983. 163-64.

Harrison, James. "Penelope: For Ken."Nort onIntroductiontoPoetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter.
New York: Norton, 1991. 360.

Hearne, Betsy. "Penelope."Polaroid:And OtherPoemsof Vi ew. Illus. Peter Kiar. New
York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1991. 44-45.

Lattimore, Richmond. "Notes from theOdyssey: Penelope."Poems f rom T hree Decades.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972. 236.

Levine, Jeffrey. “Penelope Draws from Life.” The Missouri ReviewVol. 22.1 (1998): 75.
[Winner, in a group with two poems about Ulysses, one about Circe, and one
about Telemachus, of the Larry Levis Editor’s Prize.]

Matthews, William. "Homer's Seeing-Eye Dog."Selected Poemsand T ranslations, 1969-
1991
. Boston: Houghton Miff lin, 1992. 176-77. "I myself am the model for
Penelope."

McDonald, Ann. "Solo-II."Womanblood:Portraits of W omeninPoetry and Prose. Ed.
Aline O'Brien, Chrys Rasmussen, and Catherine Costello. San Francisco:
Continuing SAGA, 1981. 21-22.

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. "An Ancient Gesture."No M ore Masks. Ed. Florence Howe and
Ellen Bass. Gar den City: Anchor/Doubleday, 1973. "He [Odysseus] learned it from
Penelope . . . / Penelope, who really cried."

Nathan, Leonard. "Washing Socks."Carrying On: New & SelectedPoems. Pittsburgh: U of
Pittsburgh P, 1985. 84.

Parker, Dorothy. "Penelope." [Only ten lines, but vintage Parker.]

Petr ie, Paul. "Penelope's Song."ClassicalOutlook(Winter 1998): 63.

Pinsker, Sanford. "Penelope's Reply."Homer i n E nglish.Ed. George Steiner. London:
Penguin, 1966. 319-20.

Porter, Burt. "Penelope."Classi cal Outl ook(Winter 1995): 54.

Raine, Kathleen. "The Clue."TheCol ected PoemsofKathleen Raine." London: Hamish
Hamilton, 1956, 1972. 94.

Ringler, Richard. "Diptych." [A palindrome with one stanza about Theseus, one about
Penelope.]

Schultz, Susan. “Penelope’s Letter to Ulysses.” The Missouri ReviewVol. 13.2 (1990):
126.

Spenser , Edmund. "Penelope for Her Ulysses' Sake."

Sturt, Jemima Makepiece. "Penelope's Musings." InHomer in English.Ed. George Steiner.
London: Penguin, 1966. 187.

Watson, Thomas. "Constant Penelope Sends to Thee," a tr anslation of Ovid'sHeroidesin
quantitative verse, 1588.

Wharton, Anne. "From Penelope to Ulysses."Kissing theRod: AnAnthology of Seventeenth
Century Women's Verse.Ed. Germaine Greer, et al. New York: Farrar Straus
Giroux, 1989.

Whisler , Robert F. "Penelope and Me."Anthologyof Ameri can V erseYearbook of American
Poetry. Ed. Alan F. Pater. Beverly Hills: Monitor, 1984. 530.

Williams, Ursula Vaughn. "Penelope."Chaos of Night: Women's Poetryand V erse ofthe
SecondWorld War. Ed. Catherine W. Reilly. Virago, 1984.

Wilner, Eleanor. "The World Is Not a Meditation."Shekhinah. Chicago: U of Chicago P,
1984. 20-23.

Wylie, Elinor. "Penelope."Handwoven(November/December 2000): 93. [Unpublished,
courtesy of The Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library, Yale University.]

Yourcenar, Joy. "Penelope." Maine Review(1994)

Criticism

Cohen, Beth, ed.TheDistaf Side:Representi ngthe F emalein Homer's Odyssey. New
York: Oxford UP, 1995. 288p.

Felson-Rubin, Nancy.RegardingPenelope:From Character to Poet cs. Princeton:
Princeton UP, 1993. 232p.

Heilbrun, Carolyn G. "What Was Penelope Unweaving?"Hamlet's M otherand Other
Women.New York: Columbia UP, 1990. 103-11.

Katz, Marylin A.Penelope's Renown: Meaning andIndeterminacyin the Odyssey.
Princeton: Princeton UP. 223p.

Winkler, John J. "Penelope's Cunning and Homer's." I nConstraintsofDesire:The
Anthropology of Sexand GenderinAncientGreece. New York: Routledge, 1990.
129-61, 232-33.

Art and Craft

Lin. Voice of the Shuttle. Available: www.humanitas.ucsb.edu/lin/htm

Chuisi Vase. Penelope seated by her warp-weighted loom, ca. 440 B.C. (pictured at the
top of the “Mortals” page in this Web site.)

W. G. Thomson, A History of Tapestry.

See also, Catullus 64 and Ovid’s Heroides

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