If you rearrange someone else's ideas and use different words and sentence structure, have you really plagiarized?

What is the best revision of this statement from the body of a cover letter?

Which is the most effective paraphrase of the passage "six benches were left empty in every ship that evening when we pulled away from death. and this new grief we bore with us to sea: our precious lives we had, but not our friends" - the odyssey

In at least 150 words, discuss the comparison described in the figurative language and how the connotative language reinforces the symbol. certainly the utmost rim of my first dome was filled with the tumultuous impression of soldiers marching to death for freedom's sake, of pioneers streaming westward to establish self-government in yet another sovereign state. only the great dome of st. peter's itself has ever clutched my heart as did that modest curve which had sequestered from infinitude in a place small enough for my child's mind, the courage and endurance which i could not comprehend so long as it was lost in "the void of unresponsible space" under the vaulting sky itself.