This document contains a full analysis of the prescribed Matric IEB poem: Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This poem has been broken down and analysed line by line to ensure it is fully understood by the reader and includes points on the structure and techniques in the poem.
Background = Ulysses or Odysseus was a Greek hero who fought during the Trojan War. He ruled the island
kingdom of Ithaca with his wife, Penelope, and newborn son, Telemachus. Ulysses was intelligent and brave and
was responsible for crafting the plan that made the wooden horse that destroyed the city of Troy.
Summary = The poem begins when Ulysses returns to his normal, domestic life after having travelled and fought
heroically in foreign lands. He struggles to acclimatise to the tedious and boring life in Ithaca. He feels as though
he is losing his vitality and purpose and yearns to discover more lands beyond Ithaca. The poem simultaneously
shows Ulysses’ shirking of responsibility to rule the island of Ithaca as his ambition grows to travel elsewhere and
experience new things.
It little profits that an idle king, → idle = purposeless/pointless. Antithesis of an action hero’s existence.
Disillusioned tone
By this still hearth, among these barren crags, → inactivity. His unchallenging and unstimulating environment.
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole → unsatisfactory too. Dullness evoked by long vowel sound
Dissatisfied tone
Unequal laws unto a savage race, → sees his people as inferior, cares little for them as his laws are ill-thought
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. → They have a mundane existence like domestic animals
Condescending tone and Disdainful attitude
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink → he will not be idle. Caesura breaks sentence, separating a new thought
Decisive tone
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd → insatiable appetite to live life to the full
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those → his resilience & grit. He immerses himself in all experiences
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when → contrast evident, highlighting the scope of his experiences.
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades → reference to one of his past heroic experiences (Hyades = goddess)
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; → reflects on his fame and earned title (arrogance)
Proud tone
For always roaming with a hungry heart → Alliteration (h) = dissatisfied breathing sound, seeks new adventures
Much have I seen and known; cities of men → direct contrast to his ‘savage race’ (Reflective tone)
And manners, climates, councils, governments, → direct contrast to his tedious life as King in Ithaca
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all; → Repetition of first-person pronouns = he’s used to adulation
And drunk delight of battle with my peers, → Alliteration (d), emphatic as he remember the camaraderie of war
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