I know I've been a little harpy on the poetry lately, but this... well this just will not do! Do you remember how you felt when The Who's "Reign O'er Me" showed up in a commercial? Well, hold onto that feeling of betrayal and disgust as you read this:
Rod Fucking Blagojevich finished an embarrassingly cloying and exploitative press conference by quoting Tennyson's Ulysses. Rod Blagojevich CANNOT have that poem. We had that poem at my father's funeral. He loved that poem.
I am taking a stand here and taking Ulysses back. It belongs to everyone in the world... provided you are not a cheap, soulless philistine. Here's the end... read it aloud (although, really, you'd probably enjoy it if you read the whole thing).
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in 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.
I love it when he says "that which we are, we are." Some might call it a tautology, but they don't get it (Blago certainly doesn't; he thinks this poem is about defiance rather than acceptance. Dumbass). I have taken these words back from Rod Blagojevich who can (and I say this in defiance of the physical impossibility, since I understand when defiance is appropriate) suck my dick. And cannot have Ulysses.
