"Ulysses" (poem)

"Ulysses" (1833, pub. 1842) is a dramatic monologue by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is almost guaranteed to appear on the GRE Literature exam.

For the test, know that Ulysses serves as a kind of epilogue to Homer's Odyssey. The poem takes place three years after Odysseus returns to Ithaca, at which point Odysseus begins to yearn for adventure again, though he doubts his strength in his old age.

You should know the following lines well:

"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."

"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."

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."