A Brief Overview of the Odyssey in One Short Poem

Speak Memory–
Of the cunning hero,
The wanderer, blown off course time and again
After he plundered Troy's sacred heights.
Speak
Of all the cities he saw, the minds he grasped,
The suffering deep in his heart at sea
As he struggled to survive and bring his men home
But could not save them, hard as he tried–
The fools–destroyed by their own recklessness
When they ate the oxen of Hyperion the Sun,
And that god snuffed out their day of return.
Of these things,
Speak Immortal One,
And tell the tale one more in our time.

          This poem is the start of the book the "Odyssey" by Homer. I think it is very important because it sets the mood of the book, and it gives the book a great introduction, by giving a brief overview of Odysseus (the character about which the book is written) and his adventures and troubles. I think the most important line in the poem, and the line that sums up the book the most, is the third line "The wanderer, blown off course time and again." This gives a great overview of Odysseus's troubles before he is introduced as the main character in book five. This line, and the rest of the first paragraph of the poem talk about what physically happened to him, and the second big paragraph talks about his emotional pain and suffering of his many years before he came home. It gives the specific example of losing all his men after they ate the oxen of Hyperion. Overall, I think this poem is a very good summary for Odysseus's journeys, and it is structured well with generally what happened at the beginning, and more specific examples at the end.