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Ulysses

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson


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 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 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,
'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.


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FriendshipCube

Registered User
Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a beautiful poem referencing Achilles, in the poem, Ulysses. Odysseus also was known by the Latin name Ulysses. The poem Ulysses is about the legend of Odysseus. Alfred Lord Tennyson is a worthy professor of Philosophy, having appropriated the ancient books, and turned them into poetry. The story of Odysseus begins in Homer's epic poem The Iliad & The Odyssey. It relates the tale of Odysseus wandering the seas for ten years as he struggled to return from the Trojan War. Odysseus ruled Ithaca, an island kingdom. There is a connection, through many cross-references, between Achilles and the Constellation Orion.

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"The Sounding Furrows", are waves. Strike the sounding furrows means, rowing together. At night. Rowing with loyal men, through the night, Ulysses, our King, would have pointed upwards to Achilles, the constellation Orion. Ulysses used that constellation for navigation, and intended to return to "the sinking star". Ulysses equates his home Ithaca with that "sinking star". It is the Island Kingdom to which the King seeks to return. Rowing late in the night, there is no separation between the ocean and the darkness of space. The constellation Orion marks the stars that guide that legendary boat, guided by King Ulysses. The legend of which we speak also existed in Egyptian times, and is re-told in Odysseus, through the Homeric epic, an epic of the Solar Boat, reminiscent of the epic told of Jesus in the New Testament. It is clear that Ulysses believes he shall return, if he and his men row hard enough, to Achilles, the Constellation Orion, and the "three suns" on Orion's belt. The solar boat, carrying the sun king, is a story that stands the test of time. Ulysses knows from whence the King came, and to where he shall return. Thinking of the story of creation, and of heaven or the stars, we recall Egypt and the dynastic knowledge of the ruling Kings. The poem references Achilles, the constellation Orion, as the origin and destiny, of the "one equal temper of heroic hearts". What makes it historically significant is the recently authenticated discoveries of the Cosmic Ashlar from Egypt, and how its language became the root of what we now know about the Seven Laws of Noah, another legend of a Sun King on a solar boat, this time told in the Old Testament. Noah, Jesus, and Odysseus share the commonality of an older legend from Egypt and perhaps earlier, of a solar boat.The legend of that solar boat exists as hieroglyphs and petroglyphs on every continent. It correlates to the constellation Orion and may be, the philosophical underpinning of human history. The story of Odysseus was written by a philosopher that had studied the Egyptian legends of The Sun Boat, or Solar Barge, and its Royal pilot. Recalling the works of Plato, in "Timaeus and Critias", the Island Kingdom predates Egypt and is the source of the ancient hidden knowledge of geometry and mathematics, a language of geometry. The philosopher Plato further correlates legendary Ithaca with an earlier, advanced civilization, knowledgeable in geometry and mathematics. Referenced through the philosopher Solon, this ancient island kingdom also connects to the Constellation Orion, referenced in The Illiad and the Odyssey.
 
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