Tennyson poem chosen for 2012 Olympics
7th March 2011
A line from a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson has been chosen to inspire the athletes taking part in the London Olympic and Paralympic Games next year.
'To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield', taken from 'Ulysses', was nominated by the British public and chosen by a panel of judges to receive a permanent installation in the Olympic Village.
The panel, comprising poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, author Sebastian Faulks, poet Daljit Nagra and broadcasters Clare Balding and John Inverdale, said the line 'sums up the courage needed to live life to the full'.
Four other lines from the poems of Robert Browning, Langston Hughes, Denise Levertov and Sean O'Brien will feature around the village.
After the Games, the village will be converted into new housing, but the wall featuring the Tennyson engraving will remain.
In the run-up to the Games, the 2012 Cultural Olympiad will feature major exhibitions by David Hockney and Lucian Freud, a World Shakespeare Festival produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and an original short film created by Mike Leigh.