{"id":223,"date":"2014-06-17T22:22:47","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T22:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/?post_type=chapter&p=223"},"modified":"2014-09-26T18:45:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T18:45:05","slug":"ulysses","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/chapter\/ulysses\/","title":{"raw":"Ulysses","rendered":"Ulysses"},"content":{"raw":"The main source of this dramatic monologue is Dante\u2019s <\/em>Inferno XXVI, 94-126. Here Ulysses sets out westward through the Pillars of Hercules: \u201cWhen I left Circe....not fondness for my son, ...nor Penelope\u2019s claim to the joys of love could drive out of my mind the lust to experience the far-flung world....I put out on the...open sea\/with a single ship\/and only those few souls\/who stayed true when the rest deserted me.\u201d But Tennyson melds details of this account with those of Homer\u2019s <\/em>Odyssey 19-24, after he has returned to Ithaca and been reunited with his wife and son and resumed his duties as king.<\/em>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nIt little profits that an idle king,\r\nBy this still hearth, among these barren crags,\r\nMatch'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole\r\nUnequal laws unto a savage race,\r\nThat hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.\r\n\r\nI cannot rest from travel: I will drink\r\nLife to the lees; all times I have enjoy'd\r\nGreatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those\r\nThat loved me, and alone; on shore, and when\r\nThro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades[footnote]A cluster of stars in Taurus, associated by the ancients with rainy weather.[\/footnote]\r\nVext the dim sea: I am become a name;\r\nFor always roaming with a hungry heart\r\nMuch have I seen and known; cities of men\r\nAnd manners, climates, councils, governments,\r\nMyself not least, but honour'd of them all;\r\nAnd drunk delight of battle with my peers,\r\nFar on the ringing plains of windy Troy,\r\nI am a part of all that I have met;\r\nYet all experience is an arch wherethro'\r\nGleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades\r\nFor ever and for ever when I move.\r\nHow dull it is to pause, to make an end[footnote]cf. Ulysses\u2019 speech in Shakespeare\u2019s Troilus and Cressida<\/em> 3.3. 144-47: \u201cPerseverance...\/Keeps honour bright. To have done is to hang\/Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail\/In monumental mockery.\u201d[\/footnote],\r\nTo rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!\r\nAs tho' to breathe were life. Life piled on life\r\nWere all too little, and of one to me\r\nLittle remains: but every hour is saved\r\nFrom that eternal silence, something more,\r\nA bringer of new things; and vile it were\r\nFor some three suns to store and hoard myself,\r\nAnd this gray spirit yearning in desire\r\nTo follow knowledge like a sinking star,\r\nBeyond the utmost bound of human thought.\r\n\r\nThis is my son, mine own Telemachus,\r\nTo whom I leave the scepter and the isle\u2014\r\nWell-loved of me, discerning to fulfil\r\nThis labour, by slow prudence to make mild\r\nA rugged people, and thro' soft degrees\r\nSubdue them to the useful and the good.\r\nMost blameless is he, centred in the sphere\r\nOf common duties, decent not to fail\r\nIn offices of tenderness, and pay\r\nMeet adoration to my household gods,\r\nWhen I am gone. He works his work, I mine.\r\n\r\nThere lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:\r\nThere gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,\r\nSouls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me\u2014\r\nThat ever with a frolic welcome took\r\nThe thunder and the sunshine, and opposed\r\nFree hearts, free foreheads\u2014you[footnote]The companions of Ulysses.[\/footnote]\u00a0and I are old;\r\nOld age hath yet his honour and his toil;\r\nDeath closes all: but something ere the end,\r\nSome work of noble note, may yet be done,\r\nNot unbecoming men that strove with Gods.\r\nThe lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:\r\nThe long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep\r\nMoans round with many voices. Come, my friends,\r\n'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.\r\nPush off, and sitting well in order smite\r\nThe sounding furrows; for my purpose holds\r\nTo sail beyond the sunset, and the baths\r\nOf all the western stars, until I die.\r\nIt may be that the gulfs will wash us down:\r\nIt may be we shall touch the Happy Isles[footnote]The Elysian Fields, or Greek paradise.[\/footnote],\r\nAnd see the great Achilles[footnote]Greek hero of the Iliad<\/em> who defeated Hector in the Trojan War. When he died, his arms went to Ulysses.[\/footnote], whom we knew.\r\nTho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'\r\nWe are not now that strength which in old days\r\nMoved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;\r\nOne equal temper of heroic hearts,\r\nMade weak by time and fate, but strong in will\r\nTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.\r\n\r\n\u20141833, 1842\r\n
\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"

The main source of this dramatic monologue is Dante\u2019s <\/em>Inferno XXVI, 94-126. Here Ulysses sets out westward through the Pillars of Hercules: \u201cWhen I left Circe….not fondness for my son, …nor Penelope\u2019s claim to the joys of love could drive out of my mind the lust to experience the far-flung world….I put out on the…open sea\/with a single ship\/and only those few souls\/who stayed true when the rest deserted me.\u201d But Tennyson melds details of this account with those of Homer\u2019s <\/em>Odyssey 19-24, after he has returned to Ithaca and been reunited with his wife and son and resumed his duties as king.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It little profits that an idle king,
\nBy this still hearth, among these barren crags,
\nMatch’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
\nUnequal laws unto a savage race,
\nThat hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.<\/p>\n

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
\nLife to the lees; all times I have enjoy’d
\nGreatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
\nThat loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
\nThro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades[1]<\/sup><\/a>
\nVext the dim sea: I am become a name;
\nFor always roaming with a hungry heart
\nMuch have I seen and known; cities of men
\nAnd manners, climates, councils, governments,
\nMyself not least, but honour’d of them all;
\nAnd drunk delight of battle with my peers,
\nFar on the ringing plains of windy Troy,
\nI am a part of all that I have met;
\nYet all experience is an arch wherethro’
\nGleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
\nFor ever and for ever when I move.
\nHow dull it is to pause, to make an end[2]<\/sup><\/a>,
\nTo rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
\nAs tho’ to breathe were life. Life piled on life
\nWere all too little, and of one to me
\nLittle remains: but every hour is saved
\nFrom that eternal silence, something more,
\nA bringer of new things; and vile it were
\nFor some three suns to store and hoard myself,
\nAnd this gray spirit yearning in desire
\nTo follow knowledge like a sinking star,
\nBeyond the utmost bound of human thought.<\/p>\n

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
\nTo whom I leave the scepter and the isle\u2014
\nWell-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
\nThis labour, by slow prudence to make mild
\nA rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
\nSubdue them to the useful and the good.
\nMost blameless is he, centred in the sphere
\nOf common duties, decent not to fail
\nIn offices of tenderness, and pay
\nMeet adoration to my household gods,
\nWhen I am gone. He works his work, I mine.<\/p>\n

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
\nThere gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
\nSouls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me\u2014
\nThat ever with a frolic welcome took
\nThe thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
\nFree hearts, free foreheads\u2014you[3]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0and I are old;
\nOld age hath yet his honour and his toil;
\nDeath closes all: but something ere the end,
\nSome work of noble note, may yet be done,
\nNot unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
\nThe lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
\nThe long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
\nMoans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
\n‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
\nPush off, and sitting well in order smite
\nThe sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
\nTo sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
\nOf all the western stars, until I die.
\nIt may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
\nIt may be we shall touch the Happy Isles[4]<\/sup><\/a>,
\nAnd see the great Achilles[5]<\/sup><\/a>, whom we knew.
\nTho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
\nWe are not now that strength which in old days
\nMoved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
\nOne equal temper of heroic hearts,
\nMade weak by time and fate, but strong in will
\nTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.<\/p>\n

\u20141833, 1842<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

  1. A cluster of stars in Taurus, associated by the ancients with rainy weather. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  2. cf. Ulysses\u2019 speech in Shakespeare\u2019s Troilus and Cressida<\/em> 3.3. 144-47: \u201cPerseverance...\/Keeps honour bright. To have done is to hang\/Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail\/In monumental mockery.\u201d ↵<\/a><\/li>
  3. The companions of Ulysses. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  4. The Elysian Fields, or Greek paradise. ↵<\/a><\/li>
  5. Greek hero of the Iliad<\/em> who defeated Hector in the Trojan War. When he died, his arms went to Ulysses. ↵<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["alfred-lord-tennyson"],"pb_section_license":"public-domain"},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[58],"license":[78],"class_list":["post-223","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","contributor-alfred-lord-tennyson","license-public-domain"],"part":214,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/223\/revisions\/968"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/214"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/223\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}