As penned by Butler, Murray and Pope, Homer’s The Odyssey captured readers and enhanced
the reading experience in unique ways, for each translation has different depictions of Odysseus’
Comment [e1]: This change and the sentence
below help youset out the context of your
comparison at the start. Best to add the first names of
the translators.
courageous journey. In my view, with respect to the reunion between Odysseus and Laertes,
Alexander Pope’s translation is the most successful, as he brings the reader into the story though
his effective choice of rhyming, descriptive words, hyperboles and rhetoric devices. Alexander
Pope The Odyssey contains adequate uses of rhyming words after in each stanza, which invoke
empathy and allow the reader to feel as if he/she were experiencing Odysseus’ journey alongside
him. Pope’s meticulous descriptive words heighten emotions he wants the reader to feel during
distinct parts of the story, readers gaining character understanding that improves the reading
experience. His ability to capture character passion and tie emotion into the story with use of
hyperboles and rhetoric connects the character with the setting, allowing for a coherent
indication of what challenge the character is facing to increase story strength. Pope’s translation
is the most successful depiction, as he brings the reader into the story with rhyming, descriptive
words, hyperboles and rhetoric devices used in the reunion between Odysseus and Laertes.
Rhyming words displayed in Pope’s translation add context to the journey and enhances diction,
tone bringing inhighlighting emotions the readers can feel, and helping them to connect to the story.
When Odysseus is reuniting with his father Laertes, he sees his father for the first time as “ground himself
had purchased with his pain, and labour made the rugged soil a plain” (Pope). The rhyming of pain and
plain, both words containing a negative connotation, focuses attention contributes to the tone ofon the
setting by accentingand accentuates the painful circumstances of Odysseus and his father. In Samuel
Butler’s translation Odysseus arrives at the “fair and well-tilled farm of Laertes, which he had reclaimed
with infinite labour” (Butler). Unlike Pope’s depiction, Butler uses no rhyming and the sentence is
interpreted differently, with no sense of underlying hardship occurring, just a description of a simple man
Comment [e2]: I’ve moved this key sentence
forward so your reader knows what your point of
view is. To replace it here, you should add a
sentence about how Pope’s text reflects his goals as a
translator, and how they differ from those of the
other two translators.