"Ulysses" is a poem by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, written in 1833 and published in 1842 in Tennyson's well-received second volume of poems. An oft-quoted poem, it is popularly used to illustrate the dramatic monologue poetic form. Ulysses describes, to an unspecified audience, his discontent and restlessness upon returning to his kingdom, Ithaca, after his far-ranging travels. Facing old age, Ulysses yearns to explore again, despite his reunion with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. The character Ulysses (Greek: Odysseus) has been explored widely in literature. The adventures of Odysseus were first recorded in Homer'sIliad and Odyssey (c. 800–600 BC), and Tennyson draws on Homer's narrative in the poem. Most critics, however, find that Tennyson's Ulysses recalls the character Ulisse in Dante'sInferno (c. 1320). For most of the poem's history, readers viewed Ulysses as resolute and heroic, admiring him for his determination "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield". The view that Tennyson intended a heroic character is supported by his statements about the poem, and by the events in his life—the death of his closest friend—that prompted him to write it. In the twentieth century, scholars began to offer interpretations of "Ulysses" that highlight potential ironies in the poem. (more...)
... that Marie Denizard(pictured) stood as a candidate in a French presidential election in 1913, thirty years before French women achieved suffrage?
... that The Crystal was one of few publications in early-20th-century China that regularly covered same-sex intimacy?
... that Hanif Kureshi transformed shadows cast by the Sun into street art?
... that Gigarta, a settlement mentioned by Strabo and Pliny the Elder, is believed to have been located on the slopes of Mount Lebanon, although its exact location remains under debate?
... that Al LeBoeuf was diagnosed with a rare condition in 2012 from an injury that he suffered in 1985?
The cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera) is a species of dabbling duck found in western North and South America. It is a migratory species, travelling to northern South America and the Caribbean during the Northern Hemisphere's winter. The cinnamon teal lives in marshes and ponds, and feeds mostly on plants. It has a typical length of 16 in (41 cm), with a wing span of 22 inch (56 cm) and a mass of 14 oz (400 g). The male has bright reddish plumage with a duller brown coloration on the female. The bird feeds predominantly by dabbling, with its main diet being plants and sometimes molluscs and aquatic insects. This cinnamon teal was photographed at the Parrot World animal park in Crécy-la-Chapelle, France.
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