8/4/2019 Alfred Lord Tennyson - Ulysses

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Ulysses

Alfred Lord Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king,By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and doleUneqal laws nto a sa!age race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me"

I cannot rest from tra!el# I will drink

Life to the lees# all times I ha!e en$oyed%reatly, ha!e sffered greatly, both with those

That lo!ed me, and alone& on shore, and when

Throgh scdding drifts the rainy yades

(e)ed the dim sea# I am become a name&*or always roaming with a hngry heart

Mch ha!e I seen and known& cities of men

And manners, climates, concils, go!ernments,Myself not least, bt honored of them all&

And drnk delight of battle with my peers&

*ar on the ringing plains of windy Troy"I am a part of all that I ha!e met&

+et all e)perience is an arch wherethrogh

%leams that ntra!elled world, whose margin fades*or e!er and for e!er when I mo!e"

ow dll it is to pase, to make an end,

To rst nbrnished, not to shine in se

As thogh to breathe were life" Life piled on life-ere all too little, and of one to me

Little remains# bt e!ery hor is sa!ed

*rom that eternal silence, something more,A bringer of new things& and !ile it were

*or some three sns to store and hoard myself,

And this grey spirit yearning in desireTo follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the tmost bond of hman thoght"

This is my son, mine own Telemachs,

To whom I lea!e the sceptre and the isle .-ell/lo!ed of me, discerning to flfil

This labor, by slow prdence to make mild

A rgged people, and throgh soft degrees0bde them to the sefl and the good"

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

1f common dties, decent not to fail

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In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my hosehold gods,

-hen I am gone" e works his work, I mine"

There lies the port& the !essel pffs her sail#

There gloom the dark broad seas" My mariners,0ols that ha!e toil'd, and wroght, and thoght with me .

That e!er with a frolic welcome tookThe thnder and the snshine, and opposed

*ree hearts, free foreheads . yo and I are old&

1ld age hath yet his honor and his toil&2eath closes all# bt something ere the end,

0ome work of noble note, may yet be done,

3ot nbecoming men that stro!e with %ods"The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks#

The long day wanes# the slow moon climbs# the deep

Moans rond with many !oices" 4ome, my friends,'Tis not too late to seek a newer world"

5sh off, and sitting well in order smite

The sonding frrows& for my prpose holds

To sail beyond the snset, and the baths1f all the western stars, ntil I die"

It may be that the glfs will wash s down#

It may be we shall toch the appy Isles,And see the great Achilles, whom we knew

Tho' mch is taken, mch abides& and thogh

-e are not now that strength which in old daysMo!ed earth and hea!en& that which we are, we are&1ne eqal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, bt strong in will

To stri!e, to seek, to find, and not to yield"