Demeter and other poems/To Ulysses

by Alfred Tennyson

TO ULYSSES.

 

i.Ulysses, much-experienced man, Whose eyes have known this globe of ours, Her tribes of men, and trees, and flowers,From Corrientes to Japan,

ii.To you that bask below the Line, I soaking here in winter wet— The century’s three strong eights have metTo drag me down to seventy-nine

iii.In summer if I reach my day— To you, yet young, who breathe the balm Of summer-winters by the palmAnd orange grove of Paraguay,

iv.I tolerant of the colder time, Who love the winter woods, to trace On paler heavens the branching graceOf leafless elm, or naked lime,

v.And see my cedar green, and there My giant ilex keeping leaf When frost is keen and days are brief—Or marvel how in English air

vi.My yucca, which no winter quells, Altho’ the months have scarce begun, Has push’d toward our faintest sunA spike of half-accomplish’d bells—

vii.Or watch the waving pine which here The warrior of Caprera set,¹ A name that earth will not forgetTill earth has roll’d her latest year—

viii.I, once half-crazed for larger light On broader zones beyond the foam, But chaining fancy now at homeAmong the quarried downs of Wight,

ix.Not less would yield full thanks to you For your rich gift, your tale of lands I know not,² your Arabian sands;Your cane, your palm, tree-fern, bamboo,

x.The wealth of tropic bower and brake; Your Oriental Eden-isles,³ Where man, nor only Nature smiles;Your wonder of the boiling lake;⁴

xi.Phra-Chai, the Shadow of the Best,⁵ Phra-bat⁶ the step; your Pontic coast; Crag-cloister;⁷ Anatolian Ghost;⁸Hong-Kong,⁹ Karnac,¹⁰ and all the rest.

xii.Thro’ which I follow’d line by line Your leading hand, and came, my friend, To prize your various book, and sendA gift of slenderer value, mine.