Page 362 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 30: Tennyson, Arnold and Yeats

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: Notes
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Summary
Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying home “by this still hearth” with
his old wife, doling out rewards and punishments for the unnamed masses who live in his kingdom.
Still speaking to himself he proclaims that he “cannot rest from travel” but feels compelled to live to
the fullest and swallow every last drop of life. He has enjoyed all his experiences as a sailor who
travels the seas, and he considers himself a symbol for everyone who wanders and roams the earth.
His travels have exposed him to many different types of people and ways of living. They have also
exposed him to the “delight of battle” while fighting the Trojan War with his men. Ulysses declares
that his travels and encounters have shaped who he is: “I am a part of all that I have met,” he
asserts. And it is only when he is traveling that the “margin” of the globe that he has not yet traversed
shrinks and fade, and cease to goad him.
Ulysses declares that it is boring to stay in one place, and that to remain stationary is to rust rather
than to shine; to stay in one place is to pretend that all there is to life is the simple act of breathing,
whereas he knows that in fact life contains much novelty, and he longs to encounter this. His spirit
yearns constantly for new experiences that will broaden his horizons; he wishes “to follow knowledge
like a sinking star” and forever grow in wisdom and in learning.

Write about the prosody of poem Ulysses.
Ulysses now speaks to an unidentified audience concerning his son Telemachus, who will act as his
successor while the great hero resumes his travels: he says, “This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the scepter and the isle.” He speaks highly but also patronizingly of his son’s
capabilities as a ruler, praising his prudence, dedication, and devotion to the gods.

Telemachus will do his work of governing the island while Ulysses will do his work
of traveling the seas: “He works his work, I mine.”
In the final stanza, Ulysses addresses the mariners with whom he has worked, traveled, and
weathered life’s storms over many years. He declares that although he and they are old, they still
have the potential to do something noble and honorable before “the long day wanes.” He encourages
them to make use of their old age because “’tis not too late to seek a newer world.” He declares that
his goal is to sail onward “beyond the sunset” until his death. Perhaps, he suggests, they may even
reach the “Happy Isles,” or the paradise of perpetual summer described in Greek mythology where
great heroes like the warrior Achilles were believed to have been taken after their deaths. Although
Ulysses and his mariners are not as strong as they were in youth, they are “strong in will” and are
sustained by their resolve to push onward relentlessly: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

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