is where Tennyson's Ulysses came from. "Dante is walking along in the dark, and he sees these flares. He thinks it's a bit like a peasant in Tuscany seeing fireflies, and then he realises these flares are actually souls in torment. In one of them is Ulysses, and he describes his last voyage--which isn't the same as you get in The Odyssey. He has left his wife and has set out on this journey of intellectual quest which Tennyson makes into his great poem. It's all about intellectual adventure, following an idea wherever it takes you."
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
That last line is not only carved on the wall at the Olympic village but also on a rough cross in the Antarctic to honour Captain Scott's failed attempt to reach the South Pole.
from Scotsman: Edinburgh Festivals: Book festival interview: A.N. Wilson, biographer
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