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Circe's Power
Circe's Power
by Louise Glück

Circe's Power Analysis

Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay

The SeaThough the sea is only mentioned once in this poem (in line 18), it is constantly on our mind. It is hard for us to separate anything having to do with The Odyssey from the sea, because so m...

Form and Meter

Free Verse"Circe's Power" is constructed in free verse, meaning there is no regular rhythm or fancy pattern going on. The poem consists of eight stanzas, most of which have three lines in them.Enja...

Speaker

Circe, Circe, Circe. Through the The Odyssey, Homer (not Simpson, but the other one) tells us that she is a beautiful sorceress with a tendency to turn men into animals when they venture onto her i...

Setting

This poem sets our imagination spinning, and we dream up the setting as we go along. We're both in a Greek amphitheater as audience watching Circe move through the theatrically lit stage, and we ar...

Sound Check

The volume goes crazy in this poem. At times we feel like Circe is shouting ("I'm sick of your world" [4]), and at other moments we feel like she's as quiet as a mouse ("I saw/ we could be happy he...

What's Up With the Title?

When we see the title, "Circe's Power," we most likely expect that the ensuing poem will be about, well, Circe's power. As readers, we probably already have some knowledge or idea of who Circe is &...

Calling Card

The Breakdown of a Modern Marriage as Performed by Mythological CharactersLouise Glück loves to play with various voices and to weave classic tales with contemporary stories. She lets mytholog...

Tough-O-Meter

(1) Sea LevelYou don't have to know a thing about Circe or about The Odyssey to walk into this poem and to know exactly what's going down. Sure, Circe launches some pretty weighty, philosophical de...

Brain Snacks

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon features a character named Circe with magical powers. Like the Circe of Homer's epic poem, she lives in a mansion surrounded by dense wood.The molü that Hermes...

Sex Rating

PG"As men and women are/ when their needs are simple" (14-15). If you read between the lines here, you could interpret "simple needs" as sex.

Shout Outs

Literature, Philosophy, and Mythology Homer's The Odyssey (the entire poem)Circe (the title)