The poem's persona ponders "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use."  
The poem's persona ponders "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use."  Very old now, he notes that "Though much is taken, much abides," and currently he "mete[s] and dole[s]/Unequal laws unto a savage race."  FTP, name this poem in which the title character longs "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield," a work by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about a hero of the Trojan War.
The poem's persona ponders "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use."  
"Ulysses"