Page 363 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
1. Libba Bray’s book A Great and Terrible Beauty has a section of the poem as an introduction,
as does Meg Cabot’s ............. .
(a) Merlin (b) King Arthur
(c) Avalon High (d) Guinevere
2. In the novel the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by ................, the title character recites the poem
to her class (this is also done in the stage and film adaptations).
(a) Zimbabwe (b) A.S. Byatt
(c) Muriel Spark (d) Graham Greene
3. ................... painted three episodes from the poem.
(a) Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (b) Royal Academy
(c) John Everett Millais (d) John William Waterhouse
4. Who haunts Stephen throughout Ulysses?
(a) His father (b) His mother
(c) Shakespeare (d) Ulysses
5. What does Stephen perceive Buck to be?
(a) Lover (b) Muse
(c) Savior (d) Usurper
Form
This poem is written as a dramatic monologue: the entire poem is spoken by a single character,
whose identity is revealed by his words. The lines are in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter,
which serves to impart a fluid and natural quality to Ulysses’ speech. Many of the lines are enjambed,
which means that a thought does not end with the line-break; the sentences often end in the middle,
rather than the end, of the lines. The use of enjambment is appropriate in a poem about pushing
forward “beyond the utmost bound of human thought.” Finally, the poem is divided into four
paragraph-like sections, each of which comprises a distinct thematic unit of the poem.
Commentary
In this poem, written in 1833 and revised for publication in 1842, Tennyson reworks the figure of
Ulysses by drawing on the ancient hero of Homer’s Odyssey (“Ulysses” is the Roman form of the
Greek “Odysseus”) and the medieval hero of Dante’s Inferno. Homer’s Ulysses, as described in
Scroll XI of the Odyssey, learns from a prophecy that he will take a final sea voyage after killing the
suitors of his wife Penelope. The details of this sea voyage are described by Dante in Canto XXVI of
the Inferno: Ulysses finds himself restless in Ithaca and driven by “the longing I had to gain experience
of the world.” Dante’s Ulysses is a tragic figure who dies while sailing too far in an insatiable thirst
for knowledge. Tennyson combines these two accounts by having Ulysses make his speech shortly
after returning to Ithaca and resuming his administrative responsibilities, and shortly before
embarking on his final voyage.
However, this poem also concerns the poet’s own personal journey, for it was composed in the first
few weeks after Tennyson learned of the death of his dear college friend Arthur Henry Hallam in
1833. Like In Memoriam, then, this poem is also an elegy for a deeply cherished friend. Ulysses,
who symbolizes the grieving poet, proclaims his resolution to push onward in spite of the awareness
that “death closes all” (line 51). As Tennyson himself stated, the poem expresses his own “need of
going forward and braving the struggle of life” after the loss of his beloved Hallam.

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