“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”

Though 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.

These lines from Tennyson’s Ulysses are recited by M (played by Dame Judi Dench) in the recent James Bond release, Skyfall. The whole poem, available here, is gloriously recited here by Sir Lewis Casson.

Alfred Lord Tennyson - Ulysses - Lewis Casson by poetictouch