...poem, however, an aged Odysseus no longer thinks that everything in his kingdom revolves around him: "This is my son, mine own Telemachus, to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle / . . . When I am gone. He works his work, I mine."31 And once Telemachus takes over, Odysseus is free...

...Telemachus the ranch and set out westward across the sea, two gray spirits "yearning in desire / -lb gs survive. Families belonged to clans, and it was by clan that the human being jo DAVID QUAMMEN k 1948 "Biology," asserts David Quammen, "has great potential for vulgar entertainment."...

...that eternal silence, something more, A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning...isle — Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil This labour, by slow prudence to make mild A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees Subdue them to the useful...

...something more, A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 30 And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow...is my son, mine own Telemachus, To whom I leave the scepter and the isle — 35 Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill This labor, by slow prudence to...

...you must go by a way where you know not. Stjohn of the Crois (The Atcent of Mount Carmcl, I, I3: 7 I) And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow...sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Ulysies) ...better discuss no further, since we are in the dark. Job (37:I 9)...

...that eternal silence, something more, A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning...in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Bevond the utmost bound of human thought. / o Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are...

...that eternal silence, something more, A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning...and the isle, — Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill This labour, by slow prudence to make mild A rugged people, and through soft degrees SEPARATIONS...

...an idle king. . . I mete and dole unequal laws onto a savage race, that hoard, and sleep, and feed". "And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow...like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought"148 And here is Ulysses at Home safe at last. And miserable. In the beginning of this millennium...

...that eternal silence, something more, A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning...in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking star It is the fact that the end of life is near that makes time so precious. "This gray spirit yearning...

...final way to choose between these two readings. When we examine lines such as those describing the desire "[t]o follow knowledge like a sinking star / Beyond the utmost bound of human thought,"69 we might object that knowledge and movement are being falsely conflated here, because the...