And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
These lines have been taken from "Ulysses", one of the famous dramatic monologues, composed by Tennyson, the Poet Laureate of the Victorian period. These lines suggest Ulysses' unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Ulysses was a great hero of the ancient Greeks. He fought in the Trojan War and won the battle after ten years. His return journey also took ten years. In these twenty years he acquired much knowledge. He became old when he returned home. But the peace of homely life could not satisfy him. He was soon bored with it. Now he wants to go out of Ithaca, his homeland, in search of new adventures and experiences. His indomitable spirit drives him to cross the limit of horizon, to enter that realm of knowledge, which is still untrodden by human beings. The simile in these lines implies the unknown area of the outer space, which is still beyond the reach of human knowledge, Ulysses, though old, has the mental strength to continue his journey in search of knowledge. His carnest desire for acquiring newer knowledge reflects the Victorian spirit of exploration. Thus, in these lines, Tennyson uses Ulysses as a spokesman of the Victorian period.
