I'm afraid this is yet another entry that leans towards the Orient.
Tennyson's "Ulysses" is a dramatic monologue that illustrates Ulysses' frustration of staying home doing nothing, after being the hero for so long. I think it is very interesting how I can often find songs or poems from my native culture that have resemblance to the English literary pieces we've been learning.
This time, finally, a representative from my homeland Hong Kong! Believe it or not, there is actually a song called "神奇女俠的退休生活" which means "The Retirement of Wonder Woman." (I'm not making this up, I promise) The lyrics are pretty delicate that I'm not confident enough to translate them. Basically it is about Wonder Woman's frustration about her inability to save the world and her boredom of living a commoner's life. Underneath it all, the song is indeed a criticism of Hong Kong's societal problems. Even so, I can still relate "Ulysses" to some parts of the song: how both the hero and the heroine "cannot rest from travel" and they are both still restless at heart - "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!"
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