What is the main theme reflected in this excerpt from “ulysses” by alfred, lord tennyson?

there gloom the dark broad seas. my mariners,
souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me--
that ever with a frolic welcome took
the thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
free hearts, free foreheads--you and i are old;
old age hath yet his honour and his toil.
death closes all; but something ere the end,
some work of noble note, may yet be done,
not unbecoming men that strove with gods.

a. the old have free hearts and free minds.
b. the mariners have toiled hard to avoid the dark and broad seas.
c. it is very important to have free time and sunshine in life.
d. the old can regain honor by taking up challenges again.

hi there!

one thousand and one nights, also called the arabian nights is a collection of middle eastern tales compiled in arabic during the islamic golden age, dated from the 8th to the 14th century. this collection was compiled of largely middle eastern and indian stories with an uncertain date and autorship whose tales such as aladdin, ali baba and sinbad the sailor -these ones were the most popular ones, the ones that have almost become part of western folklore.

as in much medieval european literature, the stories contained in this collection are set within a frame story. its scene is central asia, as known as "the islands or peninsulae of india and china", where king shahryar kills his wife after discovering her infidelities and as well as any other who betrayed him.   then, loathing all womankind, he marries and kills his new wife each day until no more candidates could have been found. his vizier had two daughters, scheherezade and dunyazad. the elder one -scheherezade- having devised a scheme to save herself and the others insisted that her father needed to give her in marriage to the king. each evening, she used to tell a story leaving it incomplete and promising to finish it the following night. the stories kept the king very interested, so eager to hear evey ending of each story, that he puts off her execution from day to day and finally he decided to give up with his plan. these stories are contained within the collection of 1001 nights, the bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is usually used for songs and riddles to express better the heightened emotion of them.