Analyzing Ocean Vuong's Poem 'Telemachus'

Ocean Vuong’s poem “Telemachus”, centers on the intergenerational trauma that was fostered during the Vietnamese War. Vuong’s own experiences as a Vietnamese- American immigrant likely influenced the poem, as the experience of an Asian coming to America due to violent circumstances would be similar to the grief and trauma that the narrator faces. The poem’s main theme of the impact of intergenerational burden of war is developed in the speaker’s language through the use of allusion and symbolism and the poem’s structure builds the emotions depicting that burden.
The ideas of this poem can be seen through the use of language such as allusion. The poem opens with an allusion to Telemachus, the son of Greek hero Odysseus from the Trojan war, who travels to find his father. In a similar way, this poem is about a son who goes to sea in search of his father and “like any good son, [he] pulls [his] father out/ of the water” (I. 1-2). This adaptation of Greek mythology forces the audience to comprehend how Vuong’s

The poem has an unusual structure that is filled with ambiguity, reflecting its roots in Greek mythology. The piece is divided into couplets and is classified as free verse because there is no other rigid structure. Vuong consistently uses enjambment throughout the poem. For example, “Because the city/ beyond the shore is no longer/ how we left it.” (II-III. 4-6). A sentence is never completed at the end of a couplet, giving readers little time to pause while reading. This thematically represents the overwhelming and never-ending feeling of trauma caused by war's repercussions. Only at the end of the poem does the sentence finish at the end of the couple, “…I seal my father’s lips/ with my own & begin/ the faithful work of drowning.” (XI-XII. 22-24). As the poem concludes, the tension created by the separation of sentences is resolved, and the narrator accepts the war's devastating