Dear Eleni,

Thank you ever so much for your inspirational teaching and unflagging energy in leading our slow-moving “phalanx” through Greece and the Aegean.  We cannot imagine our odyssey without you.  Your humor and wealth of knowledge blessed us tremendously.

As we were sailing past Samos, I mentioned a poem to you that was written in World War I and references flamed-capped Achilles shouting forth from the battlements in one of the last books of Iliad.  Below is the poem, “I Saw a Man This Morning” and a link to it also.  

Again, thank you ever so much for your patience, guidance and love of learning that you so generously shared with a group of American pilgrims from Charleston, South Carolina.

All the best, Penn

“I saw a man this morning”

BY PATRICK SHAW-STEWART

I saw a man this morning

     Who did not wish to die

I ask, and cannot answer,

     If otherwise wish I.

Fair broke the day this morning

     Against the Dardanelles;

The breeze blew soft, the morn’s cheeks

     Were cold as cold sea-shells.

But other shells are waiting

     Across the Aegean sea,

Shrapnel and high explosive,

     Shells and hells for me.

O hell of ships and cities,

     Hell of men like me,

Fatal second Helen,

     Why must I follow thee?

Achilles came to Troyland

     And I to Chersonese:

He turned from wrath to battle,

     And I from three days’ peace.

Was it so hard, Achilles,

     So very hard to die?

Thou knewest and I know not—

     So much the happier I.

I will go back this morning

     From Imbros over the sea;

Stand in the trench, Achilles,

     Flame-capped, and shout for me.