Page 48 - FOCUS year 1

13. unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
14. Hope that your journey is a long one.
15. May there be many summer mornings when,
16. with what pleasure, what joy,
17. you come into harbors seen for the first time;
18. may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
19. to buy fine things,
20. mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
21. sensual perfume of every kind –
22. as many sensual perfumes as you can;
23. and may you visit many Egyptian cities
24. to learn and learn again from those who know.
25. Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
26. Arriving there is what you're destined for.
27. But do not hurry the journey at all.
28. Better if it lasts for years,
29. so that you're old by the time you reach the island,
30. wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
31. not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
32. Ithaca gave you the marvellous journey.
33. Without her you would not have set out.
34. She has nothing left to give you now.
35. And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
36. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
37. you will have understood by then what these Ithacas mean.

Each student reads a row of the poem at a time. We make sure that each student reads
at least three times. Before we start reading, we advise the students of how to intone,
which implies: reading slowly, clearly, almost a syllable at a time, emphasizing on the
vowels and intonation. This unique style of reading gives us the opportunity to unveil
the rhythm and music behind the words, and realize that our voice and punctuation has
a significant impact on our deeper understanding of the text.
We ask the students to observe how many times the word Ithaca is referenced
within the poem.

 Splitting in groups

We divide the students into 3 teams, with 5 students each: The “Musicians”, “Painters”
and “Actors”. The splitting process is carried away randomly, by using multiple colored
paper.

This is the end of the first hour