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Question
Explain with reference to the context the following line.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
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Solution
- Reference: These lines are from the poem ‘Ulysses” written by Alfred Tennyson.
- Context and Explanation: The poet says these words while discussing the mental agony of Ulysses who is unable to settle down with his aging wife Penelope and son Telemachus. Ulysses finds doling out justice to savage people as ‘boring’. He does not want to settle down and die in Ithaca. He compares himself to a sword that may rust if left unused. He wants to lead an active and adventurous life till his death.
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