O.K., Helen, I'll type and we'll both read and anyone who wishes may read as well. Of course, we RECOMMEND the entire work, but, if you're in a hurry, read on:
Ulysses - - Alfred Tennyson
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I METE AND DOLE
UNEQUAL LAWS UNTO A SAVAGE RACE,
THAT HOARD, AND FEED, AND SLEEP, AND KNOW NOT ME.
I cannot rest from travel; I WILL DRINK
LIFE TO THE LEES!: .....................
.........................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 honoured of them all;
And drunk delight 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 wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
HOW DULL IT IS TO PAUSE, TO MAKE AN END,
TO RUST UNBURNISHED, NOT TO SHINE IN USE
AS THOUGH TO BREATHE WERE LIFE .........
There lies the port; the vesel puffs her sail;
There gleam the dark broad seas. ...........
.................you and I are old;
OLD AGE HATH YET HIS HONOR 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
(
AND Goddesses, Cara Dea,)
..........................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.
THOUGH MUCH IS TAKEN , MUCH ABIDES; AND THOUGH
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.
Here endeth this Birthday Scripture!
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