drink life to the lees

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees...

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life!...

excerpts from Tennyson's Ulysses

i remember the first time i read this poem. there just seemed to be lines/phrases that jumped off the page at me. it was my senior yr of high school, sitting in the classroom with the faint breeze blowing through the room as we dipped into the world of literature...a place that somehow has been forgotten in the midst of my science-based degrees... it was a few months before my class were all about to graduate and scatter across the world.. and the dream of seeing more of the world and experiencing what it had to offer beyond the confines of the strange existence that was our community / bubble seemed both terrifying and intriguing. i longed then as is still do to 'drink/life to the lees'. (defintion of lees: Sediment settling during fermentation, especially in wine; dregs.) it seemed to capture in a fresh way the adage of living life to the full; life in all it's fullness.

Somehow, now that i've been in the same city for the best part of 4 1/2 yrs (with random travel thrown in), i think i view this poem slightly differently. Not that i don't still have itchy feet for new experiences/adventures/travel but i think that it is still possible to strive 'drink/life to the lees' and to not 'rust unburnished' while remaining in one place for a time. is it stretching the essence of this poem to think about it as talking about life being a journey?... and the longing not being too content with how things are.. not to 'rust' in relation to friendships, challenges, seeking to know god more... or maybe tennyson was just talking about ulysees or just about travel (go read all of it sometime). and my interpretation may be just making it say what i want it to... nevertheless, i long for more ambition and passion in life that this poem portrays and as tennyson closes...

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.