The Second Voyage (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes
The Second Voyage
Overview
"The Second Voyage" is a persona poem where Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin adopts the voice of Odysseus, the legendary hero from Homer's Odyssey. This technique allows the poet to explore universal themes through a well-known mythological figure, making the poem accessible whilst addressing complex ideas about exile, longing, and the limits of human control.
The poem captures Odysseus at a moment of profound isolation and despair as he drifts alone at sea. Rather than portraying him as the triumphant hero of myth, Ní Chuilleanáin presents a vulnerable figure who curses the waves, longs for his homeland, and mourns his own powerlessness. The poem becomes a meditation on exile, on the human impulse to impose order on a chaotic world, and on the pain of being cut off from home.
Key themes woven throughout the poem include:
- Exile and the longing for home - the anguish of being unable to return
- Powerlessness against forces beyond our control
- The human impulse to name, order, and master the world
- The tension between the fluid world of the sea and the ordered world of the land
The Tiresias prophecy and the title
The title "The Second Voyage" is a direct reference to a prophecy in Book XI of Homer's Odyssey. The dead seer Tiresias tells Odysseus that, even after he reaches home, he must undertake a further journey: he must carry an oar inland until he reaches a people so far from the sea that they mistake the oar for a winnowing-fan. There, he must plant the oar in the ground and make sacrifice to Poseidon, finally making peace with the sea-god who has tormented him.
This context is essential. When Odysseus in the poem fantasises about "taking the oar inland and organising his house," he is not daydreaming vaguely about home — he is reaching for the specific, prophesied future promised to him. The title's irony is sharp: the poem shows Odysseus still trapped in the sea, unable to reach the second voyage that would finally free him from it. The longed-for journey inland is precisely what he cannot begin.
Stanza-by-stanza analysis
Stanza 1: Anger at the sea
The opening stanza immediately establishes Odysseus's frustration and exhaustion. He rests on his oar, weary from his struggles, whilst the waves are personified as taunting enemies that seem to mock his predicament. Ní Chuilleanáin describes them as "crocodiling and miming past," creating an image of predatory, theatrical mockery.
Textual Analysis: Violent Imagery
The hero's violent response reveals his desperation: "he rammed / The oar between their jaws."
This action symbolises his futile attempt to fight against nature itself — the oar becomes a weapon in a battle he cannot win. Note too that the oar, which he here uses in rage, is the same object he is prophesied to carry inland in peace. The poem sets up a quiet contrast between the oar as weapon and the oar as future offering.
The sea is described ominously as the simmering sea where scribbles of weed defined / uncertain depth, suggesting hidden dangers and the unknown threats that lurk beneath the surface.
Even the fish move in fatal formation, and part of what makes this image so disturbing is its beauty and indifference. The fish are ordered, self-sufficient, and utterly unconcerned with Odysseus. The sea has its own patterns and purposes; he is simply not part of them. That indifference is arguably more isolating than active hostility.
Stanza 2: The impulse to name and master
In the second stanza, Odysseus's anger shifts into a desperate desire for mastery. He curses the waves: "If there was a single / Streak of decency in these waves now, they'd be ridged / Pocked and dented with the battering they've had."
This violent imagery reveals his need to leave his mark, to damage and control what he cannot defeat. The desire then deepens into a more fundamental urge to name and categorise: as Adam named the Beasts. This biblical allusion connects Odysseus's impulse to the primal human need to impose order on chaos — to fix the fluid world by giving it names.
The Adam reference can be read in several ways. Most directly, it evokes the human impulse to impose order on a world that resists it — to make the unknown known by naming it. Some readers extend this toward a broader critique of the will to dominate nature, and a colonial or imperial reading is possible. But the poem itself is more interested in the psychological and existential predicament — a man adrift, reaching for the consoling fiction that he might master what is mastering him. Both readings can be held; neither should be asserted as the settled meaning.
Stanza 3: Wistfulness and longing
The mood shifts dramatically in the third stanza as anger gives way to longing and homesickness. Odysseus fantasises about the Tiresias prophecy — "taking the oar inland and organising his house." The domestic imagery — fountains, flat lakes, water clattering into the kettle, horsetroughs — creates a sharp contrast to the chaos of the ocean.
Crucially, Odysseus is not a restless adventurer regretting his choices. He is an exile trying to get home. The pain of the poem is not that he chose the sea over home and now regrets it, but that he cannot reach the land he longs for. He craves the order and stability of domestic life but remains cruelly trapped: the profound / Unfenced valleys of the ocean still held him. This beautiful yet imprisoning image captures the paradox of the sea — vast and open, yet more confining than any prison.
The contrast between sea and land is central: the sea is fluid, unnameable, resistant to human order; the land is fixed, domesticated, full of water contained (fountains, kettles, horsetroughs). Notice how the land-images all involve water that has been channelled and mastered — the very thing Odysseus cannot do to the ocean.
Final image
The poem concludes with a powerful image of complete emotional breakdown. Odysseus's face grows damp with tears that tasted / Like his own sweat or the insults of the sea. This blending of tears, sweat, and seawater creates a potent symbol where the boundaries between human suffering and the sea's hostility become blurred — the sea is no longer only outside him, it has entered his body.
The harsh alliteration of the "t" sound in tears that tasted intensifies the bitterness of this moment. The poem ends not with heroic triumph but with profound human vulnerability and desolation.
Major themes
Exile and the longing for home
At its core the poem is about exile — the condition of being cut off from the place one belongs. Odysseus is not lost because he chose adventure; he is lost because he cannot return. His fantasies of domestic order are the dreams of a man who wants only to get back.
Powerlessness against the uncontrollable
Despite being a legendary hero, Odysseus is rendered completely helpless against the vast ocean. The poem suggests that even the strongest individuals can be reduced to tears when faced with the limits of their own agency.
The impulse to name and order
The reference to Adam naming the beasts connects Odysseus's frustration to the broader human urge to impose order on chaos — to make the world manageable by fixing and naming it. This can be read in colonial or imperial terms, as some critics do, but it also operates on a more fundamental existential level: the fear of a world that will not hold still long enough to be known.
Sea and land as opposing worlds
The poem is structured around the contrast between the fluid, unbounded sea and the ordered, domesticated land. Every image of home involves water that has been contained; the sea is the water that refuses containment. Odysseus is stranded on the wrong side of this divide.
Myth and the ordinary
Ní Chuilleanáin characteristically brings a grand mythological figure down into recognisable human feeling. Her Odysseus is not a demigod but a weary man weeping into the salt — a move that lets the ancient story speak to ordinary experience.
Key imagery and symbolism
The oar
The central symbol of the poem. The oar is the object Odysseus leans on, the weapon he rams between the waves' jaws, and the sacred instrument he is prophesied to carry inland and plant in the earth. It is the hinge between sea-world and land-world, between war with the sea and peace with it. The poem holds him in the moment before that second voyage can begin — the oar still in his hands, still at sea.
Personified waves
The waves are portrayed as living, malevolent creatures that taunt and mock Odysseus. This personification transforms the natural world into an active antagonist rather than a neutral force, emphasising the hero's paranoia and helplessness.
Biblical reference to Adam
The comparison to Adam naming the beasts connects Odysseus's frustration to the primal human impulse to name and thereby master. It suggests that the desire to categorise and control comes from a deep need to impose human order on a resistant world.
Domestic imagery
The detailed images of home life — fountains, kettles, horsetroughs — create a sharp contrast with the hostile sea. Notably, all of these involve contained water: the land is the place where water has been tamed, which is exactly what Odysseus cannot do to the ocean.
Tears, sweat, and seawater
Symbolic Convergence: The Final Image
The final image where tears, sweat, and seawater become indistinguishable symbolises the complete collapse of the boundary between self and environment. The sea that was outside Odysseus is now inside him — the hostility is no longer something he can fight because he has become saturated with it.
Stylistic techniques
Use of persona
By adopting Odysseus's voice, Ní Chuilleanáin universalises the experience whilst drawing on the rich associations of this mythological figure. The persona lets her explore contemporary feeling — exile, helplessness, longing — through a timeless character.
Form and free verse
The poem is written in free verse with long, winding sentences and frequent enjambment. The looseness of the form mirrors the drift of a boat on open water — lines spill across breaks in the way the sea refuses to stay within edges. The movement from rage to reverie to desolation is carried as much by the shifting pace of the syntax as by the content.
Personification
The waves are consistently personified as enemies with jaws that can be taunting and miming. This technique transforms the natural world into an active antagonist rather than a neutral force.
Personification is one of the poem's most powerful techniques, making the sea feel like a conscious, malevolent presence rather than simply bad weather.
Sibilance
The sinister sound of "s" in phrases like simmering sea and scribbles of weed creates an ominous atmosphere that mirrors the threatening nature of the ocean.
Alliteration
The harsh "t" sounds in tears that tasted emphasise the bitterness of the final moment, while other alliterative phrases throughout the poem create rhythm and weight.
Shifts in tone
The poem moves through distinct emotional stages — rage, the fantasy of mastery, wistful longing, final desolation. This progression mirrors the psychological journey of someone confronting the limits of their own power.
Tone and atmosphere
The tone of "The Second Voyage" progresses through several distinct phases, creating an emotional journey that mirrors Odysseus's psychological state.
The poem moves through these emotional stages:
- Bitter and angry - The opening establishes hostility between hero and sea
- Grasping at mastery - The fantasy of battering and naming the waves into submission
- Wistful and longing - Deep homesickness and the dream of the second voyage inland
- Desolate and saturated - The ending, where the sea has entered him and fighting is no longer possible
This tonal progression reinforces the themes of exile, powerlessness, and the ache of a home one cannot reach.
Key Points to Remember:
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The title refers to a specific prophecy - Tiresias tells Odysseus he must one day carry an oar inland, plant it, and make peace with Poseidon; the poem shows him trapped before that second voyage can begin
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Odysseus is an exile, not an adventurer - he is not regretting a choice to leave home; he is desperate to return and cannot
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The oar is the central symbol - weapon against the sea now, sacred offering inland later; the hinge between the sea-world and the land-world
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Sea vs land - the sea is fluid and unnameable; the land is the place where water has been contained (fountains, kettles, horsetroughs), which is exactly what Odysseus cannot do to the ocean
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The Adam reference - primarily evokes the human impulse to impose order on chaos by naming; a colonial reading is possible but should be offered as one reading among several
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The fish in "fatal formation" - disturbing not only for menace but for their beauty and indifference; the sea does not need Odysseus
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Form mirrors meaning - free verse and long, spilling sentences enact the drift of the boat and the refusal of the sea to stay within edges
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The final image - tears, sweat, and seawater merging shows the sea has entered Odysseus; the boundary between self and hostile world has dissolved