Ulysses' Last Voyage

I launched her with my small remaining band

and, putting out to sea, we set the main

on that lone ship and said farewell to land.

Far to starboard rose the coast of Spain,

astern was Sardi, Islas at our bow,

and soon we saw Morocco port abeam.

Though I and comrades now were old and slow,

we hauled till nightfall for the narrow sound

where Hercules had shown what not to do,

by setting marks for men to stay behind.

At dawn the starboard lookout made Seville,

and at the straits stood Ceuta t'other hand.

"Brothers," I shouted, "who have had the will

to come through danger, and have reached the west!

our time awake is brief from now until

the senses die, and so I say we test

the sun's own motion and do not forego

the worlds beyond, unknown and peopleless.

Think of the roots from which you sprang, and show

that you are human: not unconscious brutes

but made to follow virtue and to know."