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Penelope and the Art of Archery

Before his return she had fashioned her own tiny bow
and secret shafts needle tipped
with separate venoms tailored to each suitor
for unique deaths, exactly just and protracted.

Ulysses with archery more quick
spared them all that.

Leaving Penelope with a full quiver and no targets,
save one.

Wow! This could be interpreted in many different ways.

1 ) Shall we assume that Penelope is vexed by the more merciful dispatching of the suitors by Ulysses and will vent her wrath upon him?

2 ) Has she reserved one arrow for Ulysses which will inflict death only after a long life and great happiness?

3 ) Is the implied target herself?

4 ) Has DATo missed the boat entirely and failed to see that there is yet another interpretation?

Thanks for reading. No, you have not missed the boat, but rather have suggested themes more interesting than what I had in mind myself. I particularly liked interpretation number one. I guess my own notion, though I never really articulated it to myself, was that Penelope is and has been for twenty years just a little pissy at being abandoned. Sure, Ulysses has endured great hardships on the return trip, but he's had some fun, too. He's had a life. Penelope has been on precarious hold, and now he returns and assumes that after cleaning house all will be the same as before. For twenty years Penelope has been at the mercy of male expectations, her fidelity to an identity based on being the wife of a king has worn thin, and she has come to entertain other possibilities. Maybe I wrote the thing to gain points with my feminist girl friend. Anyway, your take on it has made having written it a lot more fun.

I am now having visions of Penelope in the persona of Jennifer Lawrence.