{"id":989,"date":"2013-09-13T16:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T20:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/?p=989"},"modified":"2013-09-10T09:50:48","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T13:50:48","slug":"tennyson-ulysses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2013\/989\/poems\/tennyson-ulysses\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennyson: Ulysses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
It little profits that an idle king,<\/div>\n
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,<\/div>\n
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole<\/div>\n
Unequal laws unto a savage race,<\/div>\n
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.<\/div>\n
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink<\/div>\n
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d<\/div>\n
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those<\/div>\n
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when<\/div>\n
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades<\/div>\n
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;<\/div>\n
For always roaming with a hungry heart<\/div>\n
Much have I seen and known; cities of men<\/div>\n
And manners, climates, councils, governments,<\/div>\n
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;<\/div>\n
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,<\/div>\n
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.<\/div>\n
I am a part of all that I have met;<\/div>\n
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’<\/div>\n
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades<\/div>\n
For ever and forever when I move.<\/div>\n
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,<\/div>\n
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!<\/div>\n
As tho’ to breathe were life! Life piled on life<\/div>\n
Were all too little, and of one to me<\/div>\n
Little remains: but every hour is saved<\/div>\n
From that eternal silence, something more,<\/div>\n
A bringer of new things; and vile it were<\/div>\n
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,<\/div>\n
And this gray spirit yearning in desire<\/div>\n
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,<\/div>\n
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is my son, mine own Telemachus,<\/div>\n
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,\u2014<\/div>\n
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil<\/div>\n
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild<\/div>\n
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees<\/div>\n
Subdue them to the useful and the good.<\/div>\n
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere<\/div>\n
Of common duties, decent not to fail<\/div>\n
In offices of tenderness, and pay<\/div>\n
Meet adoration to my household gods,<\/div>\n
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:<\/div>\n
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,<\/div>\n
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me\u2014<\/div>\n
That ever with a frolic welcome took<\/div>\n
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed<\/div>\n
Free hearts, free foreheads\u2014you and I are old;<\/div>\n
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;<\/div>\n
Death closes all: but something ere the end,<\/div>\n
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,<\/div>\n
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.<\/div>\n
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:<\/div>\n
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep<\/div>\n
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,<\/div>\n
‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.<\/div>\n
Push off, and sitting well in order smite<\/div>\n
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds<\/div>\n
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths<\/div>\n
Of all the western stars, until I die.<\/div>\n
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:<\/div>\n
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,<\/div>\n
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.<\/div>\n
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’<\/div>\n
We are not now that strength which in old days<\/div>\n
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;<\/div>\n
One equal temper of heroic hearts,<\/div>\n
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will<\/div>\n
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[243],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-growing-old-with-nobility","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}