Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson - Read by Arthur L Wood

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Is this the most inspiring poem ever written? Enjoy this poetry reading of Tennyson's masterpiece and comment your thoughts.
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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.
#Poetry #Literature

[@scottmarsh2991]

Excellent oration! Thank you!!

[@ArthurLWood]

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.

[@hopeowsley2572]

"Though much was taken, much still abides." Beautiful reading!

[@drishtibaliga9168]

Such a stunning performance! Thank you!

[@leastone9600]

Enormously powerful poem, superb reading!

[@captainsmellyparts5579]

N😊lĺ

[@floriandiazpesantes573]

“Always roaming with a hungry heart” reminds me of a Great White Shark. I don’t think he wants to come home after this voyage. Wonderful, how you read it. A dramatic monologue. Not too much emphasis on the jambic stresses, rather the content, the emotions. Respecting the punctuation that lead the flow and pausing of the speech.

[@exildoc]

Powerful poem and extraordinarily emotional performance. Applause. I wonder if the poet would consider to speak to us Tennyson’s ‚„In Memoriam“. That’s a long one, so I suggest it might be published in portions. 133 cantos might exhaust even your well trained glottis! „Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.“ Maybe break break break as a warm up?

[@ArthurLWood]

Great idea. How about 'Tennyson Tuesdays'? Watch this space, I'll try and get the 'preface canto' ready for this Tuesday.

[@user-by7es1qx9n]

😢

[@nisargacv9790]

😵

[@aaronjones818]

Bars

[@coveyssteve]

Opinions vary. Too high a dramatic pitch throughout. This wonderful poem stands on its own and does not need histrionics. To do so takes away from the words. This is a thoughtful poem and should be read that way.

[@ArthurLWood]

Thanks for sharing your opinion. I definitely think there are different ways to do this one, and I might read it differently today. Ulysses is an old man here, and I was a much younger man when I recorded it. Part of me agrees with you, but I am also happy with the reading. One of the first on my channel. Hope you can enjoy a few of my other readings I have made over the years! Take care :) Arthur

[@ihavenot]

Bollocks! Perhaps you don't appreciate quite who Odysseus/Ulysses was. Tennyson captures a man still full of passion despite his advancing years, if you can't discern that then maybe Tennyson is too much for you. In my view Mr Wood here doesn't go far enough, 99% of the discourses out there are bland, feeble minded, total waste of time readings by people with no understanding of the words, grammar or punctuation they're reading coupled with an inability to interpret the nuances of the poet's thoughts set down in their verse.