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Ulysses - Tennyson Analysis
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Ulysses - TennysonBackground
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892):
- Born to church family (his father was an abusive alcoholic, and so writing
was a means of escape)
- Challenging life: He feared mental illness / deaths of friends and family / lack
of funds
- Later poems focused on mortality and nostalgia (often with mythological
settings)
Ulysses: Analysis
- The poem gives us details about the unhappiness and monotony Ulysses is
going through in his old age.
- He is living at his home on the island of Ithaca.
- We learn that Ulysses is not content with the way of his life.
i.e. he still wishes to continue sailing, however, he is getting old, but
that does not stop him.
- Written as a dramatic monologue (entire poem spoken by a single character
who inadvertently reveals aspects of his character while describing a
particular situation)
- Many victorians interpreted this poem as a criticism of mediocrity.
Structure:
- 70 lines
- 3 stanzas (32 lines + 11 lines + 28 lines)
- Iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line starting with an unstressed syllable)
- Line 3 + 7 = trochiac pentameter (Stressed syllable followed by an
unstressed syllable)
- Blank verse (no rhyme scheme)
- Enjambment
- Mimics normal speech patterns (very little punctuation)
Theme:
, - the search for adventure in human beings that makes their lives worth living.
- We see how an old adventurer is not ready o settle even at his age and
always yearns for that one more quest.
Figures of Speech:
Lines 1 - 32: Part 1
Focuses on
Ullysses’ present
and past and seems It little profits that an idle king, Lines 1 - 5: show the reader why Ulysses is
disillusioned.
to be addressedd to
Ulysses himself. ADJECTIVES: The adjectives used here have
By this still hearth, among these connotations of sterility and unfulfillment.
barren crags, - It does not seem like there is much that
He begins by delights him
expressing This can be seen as a philosophical reflection
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and
discontent with his on his life since his return to Ithaca
dole
- Life on Ithaca is boring
present situation as - His wife is now old
ruler of Ithaca. - There doesn’t seem to be much for him
Unequal laws unto a savage race, to do
The reader then (Thus, there is a sense of boredom and
learns why Ulysses discontent)
is so disconteneted That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and
when Ulysses know not me He seems somewhat annoyed that his subjects
don’t know him (which is not surprising as he
shares memories was away and presumed dead for so long)
from his past: it is
The INTERNAL MONOLOGUE is clear here: The
because Ulysses reflections of an older man who is dissatisfied
enjoyed fighting in with life and unfulfilled.
battles and I cannot rest from travel; I will drink Lines 6 - 17: Ulysses reminisces about the
travelling the world good old days.
as a younger man He says that he has been bitten by the travel
that he is so Life to the lees: All times I have bug and can’t imagine living in one place ever
enjoy’d again.
frustrated by his Drink / life to the lees: Ulysses embraced this
current situation. lifestyle, relishing it
Lees: The name given to the sediment left at
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both
the bottom of a bottle of wine
with those
- He is saying he wishes to enjoy life to
the last drop
He acknowledges that his life has not always
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