Waterhouse, John. "Penelope Weaving" Digital image. "The Secrets of the Odyssey: A Tribute to Penelope" Symbolreader, 7 Mar. 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2016.

In the pathway of the sun,

In the footsteps of the breeze,

Where the world and sky are one,

He shall ride the silver seas,

He shall cut the glittering wave.

I shall sit at home, and rock;

Rise, to heed a neighbor's knows;

Brw my teas, and snip my thread;

Bleach the linen for my bed.

They will call him brave.

--Dorothy Parker

In her poem “Penelope,” Dorothy Parker challenges the masculine heroism celebrated in The Odyssey: she uses punctuation, thoughtful word choice, and a deliberate rhyme scheme to criticize the perception that Odysseus is the only person in the epic with great kleos.

The word choice in the first half of the poem captures Odysseus’s journey, with references to the “sun,” or Helios, and “breeze, or Aelous. Both were obstacles to his progress in the epic, and in contrast Parker uses the words “pathway” and “footsteps” to show the movement of Odysseus. Penelope also describes the sea, which has been his adversary, as “silver” and “glittering,” both of which have positive connotations. Furthermore, she uses powerful verbs for Odysseus’s interactions with Poseidon’s domain, saying that he will “ride” and “cut” the waves, giving him power over his obstacles. Finally, Parker uses an ABAB rhyme scheme to give a rocking sensation and end commas for only a brief pause, to reflect forward motion.

In the second half of the poem, Parker turns to Penelope. She begins with “I shall,” which transitions between the two halves by repeating “shall” and sets up the connection between Odysseus and Penelope and their challenges. Otherwise the form of Penelope’s half is quite different. Nearly all of her lines begin with single-syllable verbs that capture the mundane domesticity of her routine in Odysseus’s absence: she “rocks,” sitting in her chair and moving but, unlike her husband, not actually going forward. She “heeds” the neighbor’s knock, perhaps alluding to the suitors, “brews” tea, “snips” thread--a delicate verb to contrast with Odysseus’s more active “cut” of the waves, and “bleaches” the linen for her bed. The “thread,” however, alludes to the trick she uses to delay the suitors, and the bed is central to her final test of Odysseus upon his return and symbolizes the strength of their marriage. Without her trickery with the loom and her loyalty to Odysseus, there would be no Odyssey.

Each line ends with a semi-colon for a longer pause to reflect Penelope’s more static existence. The DDEE rhyme scheme reinforces this lack of motion. Perhaps most significant is the rhyming of the C lines: the first C line captures Odysseus’s power over the “glittering wave,” and the second, the final line of the poem and the only one with five syllables, thus marking a change in the rhythm of the poem, states, “They will call him brave.” The pronoun “they” appears for the first time and could be the Ithacans, the bards, or generations of listeners and readers who know Odysseus as the embodiment of kleos. Penelope’s tone is ambiguous, however, and she seems to critique the singular celebration of Odysseus’s bravery. Only Odysseus is remembered as “brave,” though Penelope’s fortitude and intelligence, as well as her ability to survive the tediousness of Odysseus’s absence, are what enable his kleos. Overall, Parker makes a compelling argument about Penelope’s bravery and importance to the narrative of The Odyssey through her careful poetic structure.