Page 364 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 30: Tennyson, Arnold and Yeats

The poem’s final line, “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,” came to serve as a motto for the Notes
poet’s Victorian contemporaries: the poem’s hero longs to flee the tedium of daily life “among these
barren crags” (line 2) and to enter a mythical dimension “beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the
western stars” (lines 60–61); as such, he was a model of individual self-assertion and the Romantic
rebellion against bourgeois conformity. Thus for Tennyson’s immediate audience, the figure of
Ulysses held not only mythological meaning, but stood as an important contemporary cultural icon
as well.
“Ulysses,” like many of Tennyson’s other poems, deals with the desire to reach beyond the limits of
one’s field of vision and the mundane details of everyday life. Ulysses is the antithesis of the mariners
in “The Lotos-Eaters,” who proclaim “we will no longer roam” and desire only to relax amidst the
Lotos fields. In contrast, Ulysses “cannot rest from travel” and longs to roam the globe (line 6). Like
the Lady of Shallot, who longs for the worldly experiences she has been denied, Ulysses hungers to
explore the untraveled world.
As in all dramatic monologues, here the character of the speaker emerges almost unintentionally
from his own words. Ulysses’ incompetence as a ruler is evidenced by his preference for potential
quests rather than his present responsibilities. He devotes a full 26 lines to his own egotistical
proclamation of his zeal for the wandering life, and another 26 lines to the exhortation of his mariners
to roam the seas with him. However, he offers only 11 lines of lukewarm praise to his son concerning
the governance of the kingdom in his absence, and a mere two words about his “aged wife” Penelope.

The speaker’s own words betray his abdication of responsibility and his specificity of
purpose.

Analysis
“Ulysses” is a poem in blank verse by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), written
in 1833 and published in 1842 in Tennyson’s well-received second volume of poetry. An oft-quoted
poem, it is popularly used to illustrate the dramatic monologue form. Ulysses describes, to an
unspecified audience, his discontent and restlessness upon returning to his kingdom, Ithaca, after his
far-ranging travels. Facing old age, Ulysses yearns to explore again, despite his reunion with his wife
Penelope and son Telemachus.
The character of Ulysses (in Greek, Odysseus) has been explored widely in literature. The adventures
of Odysseus were first recorded in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey (c. 800–700 BC), and Tennyson draws
on Homer’s narrative in the poem. Most critics, however, find that Tennyson’s Ulysses recalls Dante’s
Ulisse in his Inferno (c. 1320). In Dante’s re-telling, Ulisse is condemned to hell among the false
counsellors, both for his pursuit of knowledge beyond human bounds and for his adventures in
disregard of his family.
For much of this poem’s history, readers viewed Ulysses as resolute and heroic, admiring him for
his determination “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”. The view that Tennyson intended a
heroic character is supported by his statements about the poem and by the events in his life—the
death of his closest friend—that prompted him to write it. In the twentieth century, some new
interpretations of “Ulysses” highlighted potential ironies in the poem. They argued, for example,
that Ulysses wishes to selfishly abandon his kingdom and family, and they questioned more positive
assessments of Ulysses’ character by demonstrating how he resembles flawed protagonists in earlier
literature.
As the poem begins, Ulysses has returned to his kingdom, Ithaca, having had a long, eventful journey
home after fighting in the Trojan War. Confronted again by domestic life, Ulysses expresses his lack
of contentment, including his indifference toward the “savage race” (line 4) that he governs. Ulysses
contrasts his restlessness and boredom with his heroic past. He contemplates his age and eventual

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