• Home
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • About the Author
  • About the Book
  • Bookstore
  • Reviews
  • Press/Media
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • About the Author
  • About the Book
  • Bookstore
  • Reviews
  • Press/Media
  • Contact
D.R. Ranshaw

D.R. RANSHAW

A Hope Poem

2/27/2017

0 Comments

 
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
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
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
     -Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
 
You have to love Tennyson. Well, most of the time, anyway --- I’m not a fan of how he extols egregious stupidity in his Charge of the Light Brigade (‘O the wild charge they made... Honour the Light Brigade, noble six hundred!’), but Ulysses… ah, now that’s a different story.
 
In my last post, in honour of Valentine’s Day, I held up Will’s Sonnet 29 as a terrific example of a love poem. Not too long, not gushy or mawkishly sentimental… but really written from the heart and just a beautiful thing to say to someone. Great poetry.
 
So I wasn’t too surprised when I was asked by a friend about inspirational poetry: what poem could I point at and say, “There’s a piece that really could make one decide to face the day.” (I’m not sure about seizing the day, but it could probably do that, as well. Good poetry is often multi-functional.) And once again, I didn’t have to think very long before an example came to mind.
 
Ulysses is a much longer poem than the excerpt I’ve put at the head of this post, of course. It references Homer’s epic hero Odysseus, whom the Romans turned around and renamed Ulysses when they appropriated the poem from the Greeks (as they did with so many other things, too --- like their entire pantheon of gods).  Ulysses (which is marginally easier and shorter to type than Odysseus, so that’s what I’ll use) was quite the world traveler, seeing all sorts of wonderful (and not so wonderful) things on his journeys. The only problem was, he was gone so long, everyone thought he was dead… and it was quite a surprise to everyone, including his wife, when he at last returned. It’s a great story… well, narrative poem.
 
Tennyson’s poem takes on quite a different flavour. In it, Ulysses is much older, but is thinking of going with his friends out on one last journey --- even though, as Tennyson says, they’re older and don’t have the youthful strength they once had. It’s wistfully sad, really, a metaphor for us all as we age and the dreams of our youth have either been fulfilled or receded into the mists of time. It’s a metaphor for our mortality, something young people rarely ever think of and older people can’t stop thinking about. How we all grow old and lose our youthful vigour as we approach the ‘undiscovered country’ (in Will’s words) from whom no traveler ever returns.
 
I can see your brow furrowing in bemusement. Now, hold on just a minute, you’re saying, I thought we’re talking about inspirational poetry, not the end of a life and the coming of death. And yes, yes, we are. I’m coming to that. Work with me, here. The inspiration --- for me, anyway --- is the very last few lines: “…that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong in will (dramatic pause) to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
 
Oh, yeah, he breathed, eyes closed. I still get goose bumps with that last line in particular. What the passage is saying is that, in spite of the crap that life throws at us --- on a fairly constant basis, it seems at times --- and in spite of the fact that we age and as we do, we are no longer capable of some of the things we used to do (note that italicized qualifier on my part: some things, we can’t do anymore as we age, while others, we just get better at), we don’t just lie down and give up on life. We keep going, looking for new challenges to conquer while savouring the victories of old. Above all, we don’t yield: to indifference, to despair, to evil… to the 1001 things in this world that seek to bring us down on a daily basis. Or, as I phrase it in an as-yet unpublished prayer from the sequel to my novel Gryphon’s Heir, the ‘forces of evil and malign indifference which are abroad and at work in the world.’
 
To strive, to seek, to find… and not to yield. Is that not a great mission statement for life? In English or in Latin? Oh, yes: Certare, Petere, Reperire, Neque Cedere, in case you’re wondering, although I admit, it doesn’t roll quite as trippingly off the tongue as some Latin mottos do. But that’s beside the point.
 
The point is, if you go out there and strive… seek… find… and do not yield to the forces of evil and malign indifference abroad and at work in the world… then you can’t help but have a pretty damn fulfilling, interesting, and mostly joyous journey.
 
Who could ask for anything more?

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    D.R. Ranshaw's Blog

    Author of The Annals of Arrinor series.  Lover of great literature, fine wine, and chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly