My Favorite Poems

• "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson Visit Alfred Lord Tennyson's Page Read Poem

  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 honor'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 for ever 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 fulfill
  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 honor 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.

• "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson Visit Alfred Lord Tennyson's Page Read Poem

  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 honor'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 for ever 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 fulfill
  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 honor 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.

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