Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson
As with all poetry, I do not pretend to tell anyone what a poem means. You may find scholars who will be thrilled to do that for you. But I do freely tell you what it means to me. I find great inspiration in poetry. As with all great writing I rely upon time to be my primary filter. If a poem endured through the ages, then it is more likely that it has a voice that speaks to the universal nature of mankind. It reflects a common experience regardless of the differences. I never grow tired of reading Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Maybe, however, this particular poem speaks to me because, like Ulysses, I am old and an taking my last voyage toward death. Ulysses appears to face the inevitable with the same courage he faced the trials of life. Let’s let Ulysses through the language of the renown poet Tennyson speak for himself.
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:
Obviously, Ulysses doesn’t like to sit idle. He doesn’t appear to like the mundane repetition involved in governing an established state. It is more in harmony with his nature to be fighting in Troy or sailing the seven seas at odds with the gods. To drink life to the lees is like drinking wine to the very last drop, down to the dregs. It is not enough to simply eat, drink and acquired wealth. He is a warrior king, a man of action. He is used to the journey, not to the destination. Therefore, with gusto he embarks on his final journey, into the realm of the unknown as Shakespeare says, “The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns”
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.
To Ulysses it is the journey that matters and not the destination. He roams with a hungry heart.
I am a part of all that I have met;
This famous line defines a trait that we all share. In our journey we are changed by our environment and in return we change others. We absorb life. We are not like lichen that sticks to one place. Another great poet, John Donne expresses the image this way.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
