Published 1889. Written early 1888 (ll. 6–8), and read to F. T. Palgrave in Nov. (Mem. ii 507). T. comments that Ulysses was ‘the title of a number of essays by W. G. Palgrave. He died at Monte Video before seeing my poem’. Palgrave was the brother of F. T. Palgrave (friend of T., and editor of The Golden Treasury); T. had met him many times since 1860. His Ulysses was published in Nov. 1887, and T. was presented with a copy; he died 30 Sept. 1888 (Mem. ii 507). T. uses the In Memoriam stanza to praise the book, as in To E.L. (p. 486). On Palgrave and his book, Ulysses: or, Scenes and Studies in Many Lands, see W. N. Rogers, VP xix (1981) 351–66.
I
Ulysses, much-experienced man,
Whose eyes have known this globe of ours,
Her tribes of men, and trees, and flowers,
From Corrientes to Japan,
II
To you that bask below the Line,
I soaking here in winter wet –
The century’s three strong eights have met
To drag me down to seventy-nine
III
In summer if I reach my day –
To you, yet young, who breathe the balm
Of summer-winters by the palm
And orange grove of Paraguay,
IV
I tolerant of the colder time,
Who love the winter woods, to trace
On paler heavens the branching grace
Of leafless elm, or naked lime,
V
And see my cedar green, and there
My giant ilex keeping leaf
When frost is keen and days are brief –
Or marvel how in English air
My yucca, which no winter quells,
Although the months have scarce begun,
Has pushed toward our faintest sun
A spike of half-accomplished bells –
VII
Or watch the waving pine which here
The warrior of Caprera set,
A name that earth will not forget
Till earth has rolled her latest year –
VIII
I, once half-crazed for larger light
On broader zones beyond the foam,
But chaining fancy now at home
Among the quarried downs of Wight,
IX
Not less would yield full thanks to you
for your rich gift, your tale of lands
I know not, your Arabian sands;
Your cane, your palm, tree-fern, bamboo,
X
The wealth of tropic bower and brake;
Your Oriental Eden-isles,
Where man, nor only Nature smiles;
Your wonder of the boiling lake;
XI
Phra-Chai, the Shadow of the Best,
Phra-bat the step; your Pontic coast;
Crag-cloister; Anatolian Ghost;
Hong-Kong, Karnac, and all the rest;
XII
Through which I followed line by line
Your leading hand, and came, my friend,
To prize your various book, and send
A gift of slenderer value, mine.
¶423. 1–3. Palgrave’s epigraph (in explanation of his title) had been Qui multorum hominum mores et vidit et urbes, i.e. Horace’s Epistles I ii 19–20: qui… multorum providus urbes / et mores hominum inspexit, from Odyssey i 3. Cp. Ulysses 13: ‘Much have I seen and known; cities of men…’.
4. Corrientes: in Argentina.
10–11. Cp. The Brook 196: ‘breathes in April-autumns’.
11. summer-winters] sunnier summers H.Nbk 55.
14. the winter woods,] with careful [patient 1st reading] eye MS.
17. And] Who MS.
20. Or… how] While yonder out MS 1st reading.
21. My] One MS 1st reading.
23. our faintest] the hazy MS 1st reading; our feeblest MS 2nd reading.
25. Or] Who MS 1st reading. waving pine] slim pine wave MS 1st reading.
26. 1889 note: ‘Garibaldi said to me, alluding to his barren island, “I wish I had your trees.”’ T. noted that Garibaldi planted a Wellingtonia at Farringford, April 1864. Caprera: Garibaldi’s home, an island off Sardinia.
29. once half-crazed] yearning once MS 1st reading; once half-mad MS 2nd reading. Cp. You ask me, why 26–8: ‘I seek a warmer sky, / And I will see before I die / The palms and temples of the South.’ Recalled perhaps because it uses the In Memoriam stanza.
31. chaining fancy now] now with fancy chained MS 1st reading.
33. Not less] I yet MS 1st reading.
34. 1889 note: ‘The tale of Nejd’ (in Arabia).
38. 1889 note: ‘The Philippines’. Cp. Locksley Hall 164: ‘summer isles of Eden’. Palgrave may have been thinking of this (he was certainly thinking of The Lotos-Eaters) when he called the Philippines ‘isles of Eden, lotus-lands’ (p. 113). T., as it were, returns the compliment.
40. wonder] marvel MS 1st reading. 1889 note: ‘In Dominica’ (West Indies). 40–4. The listing of the natural wonders suggests On Sublimity 81–100 (I 131).
41. 1889 note: ‘The Shadow of the Lord. Certain obscure markings on a rock in Siam, which express the image of Buddha to the Buddhist more or less distinctly according to his faith and his moral worth.’
42. Phra-bat: 1889 note: ‘The footstep of the Lord on another rock.’
43. 1889 notes: ‘The monastery of Sumelas’, and ‘Anatolian Spectre stories’.
44. Hong-Kong: 1889 note: ‘The Three Cities’ (the title of Palgrave’s chapter on Hong-Kong). Karnac: 1889 note: ‘Travels in Egypt’. rest;] rest. 1889, 1894, Eversley. Rogers (see headnote) puts the case against the full stop; to his argument should be added that H.MS has no punctuation here.