Tennyson's poem “Ulysses” combines the Dante’s and Homer’s story of the king Ulysses or Odysseus story to create a long monologue that Ulysses gives detailing his boredom at being in Ithaca, and his desire to return to the adventurous life he lived before. Many critics declare that Tennyson's poem reflects his personal desire to overcome the death of his best friend, Hallam. In fact, Tennyson wanted to keep on living his life with all the negative and positive changes that mirrored the life of Ulysses. Ideally, “Ulysses” is a dramatic monologue that includes the persona’s critical situation that is directed at a silent audience. Tennyson names the narrator in the title of the poem.
Ulysses is an Ancient Greek hero who talks about the way he loathes his position as the king, and wishes he could travel once more before his death. Tennyson presents the narrator as an old sailor, a king, and a warrior who has become restless, as he is uncomfortable at home. As such, he attempts to embark on a new but recognizable journey even though he knows that this journey would be his last. He sees himself as a representation for everyone who has wandered the earth as his travels exposed him to various types of people and their style of living. Irrespective of the fact that he grows old in his physical body, Ulysses feels his spirit aching to travel. He believes that is old, he notes “Matched with an agèd wife, I mete and dole / Unequal laws unto a savage race, / That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me,” (Tennyson, 3-5). In addition, he lashes out against his son’s timid nature to govern the people.
Arguably, Ulysses is at the twilight years of his life. He is angry with his current destiny and he refuses to allow fate to dictate his life. In stanza two, Ulysses notes "I cannot rest from travel; I will drink / Life to the lees."(Tennyson, 9-10). Through this statement the reader sees that Ulysses deludes himself about the kind of life that comes with staying at home and running his kingdom. His determination is apparent when he says "I am become a name; / For always roaming with a hungry heart". (Tennyson, 11-12). Likewise, he proclaims that he “cannot rest from his travels” as there is no point in staying home “by this still hearth” meting out punishments and rewards to those who reside in his kingdom.
One could say that Ulysses symbolizes the grief of Tennyson as he declares his resolution to move forward despite his awareness that “death closes all” (Tennyson, line 51). Conversely, the poem expresses Tennyson’s desires brave the struggles of life after he loses his friend to death. The final lines in the poem, “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,” serves as an adage for Tennyson’s Victorian contemporaries. The hero in the poem desires an escape from the monotony of his daily routine “among these barren crags” (Tennyson, 2) as he enters a mythological dimension that goes “beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars” (Tennyson, 60–61). In fact, one could say that Ulysses is the ultimate model of self-assertion in an individual, and reflects the Romantic revolutionary against bourgeois traditional values. Therefore, Tennyson’s readers see Ulysses as more than the mythological character, but also, as a significant contemporary cultural representation. Similar to Tennyson’s other poems, “Ulysses,” looks at mankind’s desire to move beyond the boundaries of one’s scope of vision and the monotonous details of daily life.
The entire poem reflects the identity of a single character that reveals himself through his words. In addition, it is a dramatic monologue with the lines written in unrhymed iambic pentameter or blank verse. With this technique, Tennyson skillfully communicates a fluid and normal feature to Ulysses’s speech. Majority of the lines are enjambed and suggests that each thought does not stop at the break in the lines as the sentences end in the middle of a line instead of at the end of the lines. Tennyson’s use of enjambment is suitable as the poem pushes forward and goes beyond the ultimate boundaries of the human reflection. Ideally, Tennyson divides the poem into four sections that resembles paragraphs. Each section consists of a separate thematic element of the poem.
Similar to all dramatic monologues, the nature of the speaker emerges almost by coincidence through his words. Ulysses’ ineffectiveness as a leader is clear as he prefers the potential adventures over his present responsibilities as king. Ulysses devotes twenty-six lines in the monologue to his egotistical declaration of his enthusiasm for the life of a wanderer and another twenty-six lines to his urge to his mariners to wander the seas alongside him as he relives the glory days. Interestingly, Ulysses only uses eleven lines of unenthusiastic praise to his son in regards to the governance of his kingdom during his absence. In addition, his egotistical nature shines through as he does not appreciate his aging through his reference to his “aged wife,” Penelope. Therefore, one sees that the speaker uses his words to betray his abandonment of his responsibility as he gives clear reasons for his choice.
In concluding, the poem reflects mankind’s desire to move beyond the boundaries of life and explore the wider world. Tennyson shows that despite one’s age, there is always the desire to want to relive the glory days. Ulysses declares what the typical adventurous man desires. Irrespective of his age, Ulysses believes in his abilities to explore the world one last time as he cannot accept the confinement that comes with his age. Critics argue that Ulysses desire to continue his glory days is a reflection of his childish desires to be free of responsibilities. Nonetheless, one can correctly argue that he merely seeks an opportunity to be free. He believes that his experiences have shaped his life as he is wiser because of his adventures. In the last stanza, Ulysses implores his mariners not to give up accept their fate because they are old, but instead, accept that they have the potential to do noble and honorable acts before “the long day wanes.” The lesson Tennyson teaches in this poem suggest that one should make use of one’s old age because “’tis not too late to seek a newer world.”
Works Cited
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, “Ulysses” from Kelly J. Mays (Ed.) “The Norton Introduction to
Literature,” Shorter Eleventh Edition, New York. W.W. Norton & Company. Print.
ISBN: 978-0-393-91339-2 (pbk.)
