ULYSSES

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

5 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 enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
10 Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed 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,
15 Myself not least, but honored 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 wherethrough

20 Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades Forever and forever 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. Life piled on life

25 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 scepter and the isle
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them. to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centered 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 :

5

10

15

There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners

Souls that have toiled and wrought, and thought with me

20

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 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.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks :
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

H

25

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
5 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.
10 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 15 To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

ALFRED TENNYSON.

Tennyson pictures Ulysses (Odysseus) in old age, safely returned to his home in Ithaca, but weary of inactivity and eager again for adventure and achievement. The poem is in blank verse (lines of five feet without rhyme), and celebrates in noble verse the spirit of adventure.

1. Who is supposed to be speaking? 2. What feelings does he show in the first five lines? 3. What does he tell of his experience in lines 7-18? 4. Explain the figure of speech in lines 19-21. 5. What character does Ulysses give to his son? 6. Whom does Ulysses address? 7. Quote the lines which indicate the time of day. 8. Why are the waves called "sounding furrows"? 9. Who was Achilles? 10. Select a single line that expresses the spirit of the poem.

Notes. Ulysses (ū-lis'sēz), mete (mēt), Hyades (hi'a-dēz), Telemachus (te-lěm'a-kus). Happy Isles, fabled isles of the blest, where favorites of the gods went after death. Achilles (a-kil'lēz).

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES

Socrates lived centuries after Homer and died 399 before Christ. No writings of his have been preserved but his wise teachings and his noble life are set forth in the Dialogues of Plato, the great philosopher and the chief of Socrates' disciples. In the world of ideas Socrates had the daring and energy of Ulysses, and he was condemned to death on the charge that his teachings were contrary to religion and corrupting to the young. Socrates disdained to defend himself from charges so false; he accepted the penalty and refused to take advantage of a plan for escape offered by his friend Crito. He had taught men how to live and now was ready to teach them how to die.

When Socrates had done speaking, Crito said: "And have you any commands for us, Socrates - anything to say about your children, or any other matter in which we can serve you?"

"Nothing particular," he said; "only I have always 5 told you, I would have you look to yourselves; that is a service which you may always be doing to me and mine as well as to yourselves. And you need not make professions; for if you take no thought for yourselves, and walk not according to the precepts which I have given you, not now 10 for the first time, the warmth of your professions will be of no avail."

"We will do our best," said Crito. "But in what way would you have us bury you?"

“In any way that you like; only you must get hold of 15 me, and take care that I do not walk away from you."

Then he turned to us, and added with a smile: “I can

not make Crito believe that I am the same Socrates who has been talking and conducting the argument; he fancies that I am the other Socrates whom he will soon see, a dead body and he asks how shall he bury me? And though 5 I have spoken many words in the endeavor to show that when I have drunk the poison I shall leave you to go to the joys of the blessed, these words of mine, with which I comforted you and myself, have had, as I perceive, no effect upon Crito. And therefore I want you to be surety for me 10 now, as he was surety for me at the trial: but let the promise be of another sort; for he was my surety to the judges that I would remain, and you must be my surety to him that I shall not remain, but go away and depart; and then he will suffer less at my death, and not be grieved when he sees my 15 body being burned or buried. I would not have him sorrow at my hard lot, or say at the burial, 'Thus we lay out Socrates,' or, 'Thus we follow him to the grave or bury him'; for false words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. Be of good cheer then, my 20 dear Crito, and say that you are burning my body only, and do with that as is usual, and as you think best."

When he had spoken these words, he arose and told us to wait while he went into the bath chamber with Crito; and we waited, talking and thinking of the subject of discourse, 25 and also of the greatness of our sorrow; he was like a father of whom we were being bereaved, and we were about to pass the rest of our lives as orphans. When he had taken the bath, his children were brought to him (he had two young sons and an elder one); and the women of his family