Poet's Corner: Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Ulysses by 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 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 have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Comments

[firecat]

I tried to read this out loud, and it is really challenging because of the long sentences. The second one is sixteen lines! There are so many different choices about which words to emphasize and what rhythms to use and I can't decide.

Judi Dench reading a portion of it in Skyfall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF2SCDx27O4

Helen Mirren reading a slightly longer portion of it to Stephen Colbert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF2SCDx27O4

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yea, it's a tough one in parts to read aloud. I do, however, feel very strongly about spoken poetry. I got a Poetry Speaks book (with CDs! how nostalgic!) to listen to this month. They even managed Browning reading his on some kind of archaic wax cylinder. And when I write anything, fic, verse, this message, I do hear it in my head and that's a big part of my process. Yes, there's the space on the page but the sound of it is more important to me.

I didn't want to start out the month with old white men but this was one that is a classic but I'd never actually read. And it really is beautiful. The Mirren version, especially the beginning, is very nice. And Dame Judi punches the end harder, which I like. Colbert is originally from South Carolina and Catholic (like me) so I have a soft spot for him.

[firecat]

That sounds like a great book.

Dame Judi's reading is riveting.

I need to sit down and watch some Colbert someday. I see clips here and there but I've not watched a whole show.