Ulysses

[@theoneoutofnazareth]

it reminds me of this - "even in old age, they shall bear fruit" - May the Lord strengthen you, Malcolm!

[@larrymarshall9454]

I just came across this episode. What a great reading of a great poem. You got so much more from it than I ever could. Thanks for sharing.

[@TheWanderingtree]

Nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this posted yesterday, as I had just started an analysis of the poem with senior class! We finished it today. Yes, quite a magnificent poem.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Wonderful!

[@Nighttrainpiper]

And not to yield ... TS Eliot must have really loved this one. And Dylan Thomas too!

[@sandraevans7881]

Thanks. As you were reading, the scene from The Silver Chair, where Caspian the great Narnian seafarer was setting off on a journey in his old age, dropped into my thoughts. Many of my retired friends and I have this sense that we have another endeavour in us yet. Great Hope that God will call us to something new.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes I'm sure Lewis was riffing on this poem when he wrote that passage!

[@go2therock]

Thank you for reading this. I especially enjoyed its ending.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@keriford54]

I was worried it was going to be Joyce, delighted it was Tennyson

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes, might have been a long episode if it was Joyce!

[@lalitborabooks]

Everyone has a poet who appeals to them specifically. For me, it is Tennyson. Excellent video. Have a great respect for your work sir. Thanks!

[@RevSteveSutton]

Thanks, Malcolm, as ever a visit to your study is such a refreshment during this time. I have also been motivated to gather up from my piles of books all my Poetry books and put them on a few shelves together, didn't know how many I had until I put them together, it means that I can now enjoy them more and seek the ones I haven't got.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Wonderful!

[@seanodonnell3683]

I flipped the dining room table over in celebration and renewed vigor once you finished that poem！thank you for sharing it.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Thanks! Hope the table's all right!

[@jackhooper3927]

Ahoy, Priest! An old Norse seadog lives still by the last lines of your poet. Fair winds and calm seas!

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

And the same nautical blessing to you!

[@stefsomful]

So good to hear this again - if my memory serves me correctly I first heard it in a Morse episode many years ago - stirring words then for someone who was on the edge of giving up...but did not yield!

[@MarkEGreen-rf4on]

Stirring stuff, Malcolm! The Victorians gained much inspiration from Classical Greece and Rome. God bless.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

indeed they did!

[@davidgrahambrown3793]

Thank you Malcolm, much appreciated.

[@saxoungrammaticus9132]

One of my very favourite poems, thank you

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Mine too!

[@auk7447]

It’s such a long time since I’ve seen a pipe ‘in action’! Memories of my grandads and indeed thoughts of my now very old father... They were ordinary men. They didn’t (in the case of my father dont) face the dropping light of their years with any of the grandeur here. There had not been, nor would there be noteable adventures to revive. They kept going day after day and didn’t complain about their losses. Is this a yielding? Except that they kept going til the end. I wonder if their strength / character is captured in this poem or is theirs a different story, but also one to admired.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

I think this poem does indeed capture the strength and character of another generation!

[@MacMacPherson]

beautifully read, malcom... thank you

[@loveandpeace1985]

Learned a bit in this video! I miss going to college and enjoying literature classes. This video takes me back to that great feeling I had in my favorite classes.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@b.b.holmes8255]

Great again Malcolm

[@ddogwithtwods4487]

Do not go gentle into that good night .. 🙂

[@sandraevans7881]

Interested to listen to Dante 2021 on Radio 4 this week.

[@stuartroberts2420]

Talking of sublime to ridiculous (don’t be so humble by the way!), I was minded of Heinlein’s Glory Road. Oscar Gordon, the hero resting on his laurels, also seeks one more adventure, but not as a postscript to his Odyssey. The whole second act is a psychological study into what Tennyson describes of Ulysses’ thoughts so poetically. I wonder if Heinlein had read this? Edited: decided to google it, and Heinlein was familiar with Tennyson and Ulysses in particular.

[@timhower3628]

But what of America. We who are mostly of European decent. Whose ancestors left Europe because of of an inch that could not be scratched and left their ancestral homes for whatever reason to come to a new shore to begin a new life displacing the Native inhaptents. Are we not like Usylees of Itthica lookining for a new adventure. America is a nation that rebels against whatever. But there is no more Arcadia.

[@nathanbones85]

God I love this

[@hideakipage8151]

Smite the sounding furrows

[@ericdingler672]

Good stuff.... but what blend were you smoking?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Kendle Black Cherry

[@marchess286]

Thank you

[@johnshura1650]

Wonderful

[@nalestan]

An unparalleled reading Malcom, thank you! Warm greetings from Norway.

[@Charles-y4r]

So he leaves his wife behind again? 😊 I have that poem to my dad. He kept it on the wall by his desk.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes, the poet Gwyneth Lewis has retold the story from Penelope's point of view!

[@Charles-y4r]

@@MalcolmGuitespell is she an English poet?

[@Uytaryn]

I have James Joyce's Ulysses