What is the major theme in this excerpt from "ulysses" by alfred, lord tennyson? how dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use! as though to breathe were life! life piled on life were all too little, and of one to me little remains; but every hour is saved from that eternal silence, something more, a bringer of new things; and vile it were for some three suns to store and hoard myself, and this grey spirit yearning in desire to follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

the answer is solomon northrup. he was a free-born african american, abolitionist and professional violinist that was drugged, kidnapped and sold as slave in 1841 and remained in captivity until 1853 where he regained his freedom with the of the then-governor of new york, washington hunt. he wrote and published his memoirs "twelve years a slave" in 1853, and in this text, he tells the story of his escape thru one of louisiana's swamps (the great pacoudrie swamp) in which he ended up covered in green slime from crossing the surface of the dead water.

answer; knowledge,reason,and judgement;