Wednesday, 15 June 2016

In the concluding lines of the poem, what qualities does Ulysses say that he shares with his mariners?

The
original question had to be edited. The concluding lines of the poem reflect howshares the
spirit of adventure with his mariners.  Ulysses' closing lines speaks to this condition.  It is
a condition in which Ulysses has spoken of what might be discovered. Such explorations could
reveal touching "the Happy Isles" or "see the great Achilles."  Ulysses
speaks of sharing this condition with his mariners.  It is the condition of exploration and
embrace of adventure without knowing the consequences.  

The closing lines of
the poem speak to a point in time where Ulysses and his mariners are old, approaching a point in
their lives where they are closer to the end than the beginning.  Yet, this should not deter
them from their expressed purpose of being:

We are not now
that strength which in old days/Moved heaven and earth; 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.

This is the condition that
Ulysses shares with his mariners.  It is one in which time has challenged them and fate has take
some of their initial youth.  Yet, it is a being in which "heroic hearts" must prevail
and for this reason, Ulysses and his men must engage on this quest, perhaps a final one, in
which the drive "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" is all there
is.

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