If my recollection is correct, and at the end of Odyssey ends with Odysseus returning alone, I was simply wondering why Tennyson portrays him speaking to his fellow mariners, since they are all dead according to Homer.
Terrific to see this. Thanks, Zina. I'm confused that Ulysses calls to his mariners to join him on a final voyage, though. I thought he alone returned. Poetic license used on another's poem, I guess. " 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
I loved this poem the first time I read it when I was much younger, even though I didn’t fully understand it. So many excellent lines.
Zina,
Thanks so much for the dedication! And of course for your reading of this great poem.
Loved this
Aha!
If my recollection is correct, and at the end of Odyssey ends with Odysseus returning alone, I was simply wondering why Tennyson portrays him speaking to his fellow mariners, since they are all dead according to Homer.
Terrific to see this. Thanks, Zina. I'm confused that Ulysses calls to his mariners to join him on a final voyage, though. I thought he alone returned. Poetic license used on another's poem, I guess. " 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,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world."