"Prayer" - The Ikon of our Lady
In the poem “Prayer” a mother approaches a religious ikon, portraying “our Lady” (l. 3), in order to light a candle and pray for the safety of her son who is out at sea. While the identity of the Lady is not given, the religious connotation and her importance for the mother make it likely that she is the Mary, mother of Jesus.
The ikon, though unable to move or speak, nevertheless is portrayed to have feelings. While she listens to the mother’s pleas, giving her hope and strength, she knows that the son is already dead, having drowned at sea. She finally lets the mother leave, hoping and waiting for her son’s return.
"The First Step" – The young poet Evmenis
Evmenis is a young poet who, as he says himself, has been writing poetry for the better of two years. Yet, he has only composed one idyll (which are generally very short poems), which he sees as a failure. He expected more of himself, exposing strong motivation and ambition, as well as impatience.
He approaches another poet, Theocritos, who is likely his teacher or at the very least his role model (as the idyll is a poetry form emulating Theocritus’ own poetry), ostensibly to complain, though likely to ask for advice. In this conversation, he admits that his motivation and ambition are starting to decrease as he has not had the success he wanted at this point in his writing career and feels hopeless that he will never reach it. Theocritus does not comfort the young poet by urging him to be patient, he instead points out how extraordinaire Evmenis has already proven to be by composing any work altogether.
"The City" - You
In the poem the speaker reacts to the declaration of an unidentified “you” that they will go to another city to start a better life. The speaker chastises “you” for believing that the city is to blame for their dissatisfaction and states that life won’t change for “you” wherever they go, because they carry the city with them.
“You” in this poem is representative for all those people who blame their circumstances for the things in their life they don’t like. Instead of looking inward, facing their own vices and bad habits that keep them from happiness or success, they shift blame outwards, onto the city they live in or the people around them. Pretending that not their behavior is at fault relieves them of the responsibility to face up to their own character flaws and the need to change.
