Ulysses

[drscott]

We're about to be subjected to a revival of the Trojan War / Ulysses meme -- first there was Dan Simmon's new novel, Ilium, an interesting recast of the Trojan War as a play directed by transhumans, then there is the upcoming movie Troy, with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. Which recalls a favorite poem, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses, which ends with this bit (memorably performed for a TV commercial by Sir John Gielgud):

Come, my friends,
'Tis 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.