Ulysses

 

I have been ruminating about travel over the past few days. The excitement and anticipation of potential travel adventures have set my soul stirring. I have turned to the writers, poets, novelists and lyricists alike, to find the expression of all I’m holding inside. For today I have settled on a bona fide classic –Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

This extract frames a time when travel was voyages across the oceans and adventures were epic and grand battles for survival.

 

‘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

Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext 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,

Myself not least, but honoured of them all;’