Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
1) Read the poem through and say:
- who is speaking and to whom
- how old he is
- where he is
- what he is setting out on
2) Now read the text again, this time paying attention to the development of the argument.
Summarize what Ulysses says and feels following the guidelines on the left. For each point consider also Tennyson's vocabulary indicating which words and phrases, in particular, reveal in the hero's traits and attitudes. The first point has been written for you.
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Life on Ithaca (lines 2-5) | It is uncivilised and... Negative adjectives such as idol, aged convey Ulysses's total dissatisfaction with life on Ithaca |
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His past life |
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View of present and future (19-32) |
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Attitude to Telemachus (33-44) |
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Address to his mariners (45-70) |
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3a) How is Ulysses portrayed in the poem?
To answer the question, consider:
- His present situation
- The contrast with Telemachus
- What he can be taken to be symbolic of
- Whether he differs from the picture we usually associate with the hero of the Odyssey
3b) What is the poet's attitude to Ulysses and Telemachus? With whom does it side?
4) The poem was composed when Tennyson was still suffering for the death of his dearest friend, A. Hallam, in 1883. Does the poem reflect a sense of loss?
5) As you will have realised the hero's feelings are communicated through a careful choice of words.
What observations can you make about the metre and the music of the poem and the relationship with its meaning?
ANSWERS
1)-Ulysses is speaking to no-one in particular, because Ulysses is explaining his feeling, but since it is a dramatic monologue it should be addressed to a silent audience.
-Ulysses is not the young Ulysses that we met in Dante's "Divina Commedia", but he is middle aged, like his wife:Penelope.
-He is on his Land: Ithaca.
-Ulysses "rewind" his life in his thoughts and thinks about the war of Troy, all the cities and men he met and so on.
2)
Life on Ithaca (lines 2-5) | It is uncivilised and... Negative adjectives such as idol, aged convey Ulysses's total dissatisfaction with life on Ithaca |
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His past life (lines 6-18) | During his travel Ulysses discovers two important component of human being: joy and suffering. This is the only way to become a real person and to live an authentic life. In order to Know yourself you have to know other people, this is the human experience. Important phrases and adjective are: "I will drink life..." , "enjoy'd", "suffer'd", "I am become a name", "Much have I seen and Known; cities of men", "I am part of all that I have met". |
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View of present and future (lines 19-32) | Criticism of immobility. Ulysses believes that life is always a travel, immobility does not change you; the same Ulysses says "How dull it is to pause, to make an end": this is not life. In life you have to spend your talent, not to stay in your land forever. |
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Attitude to Telemachus (lines 33-44) | Telemachus is able to subject that savage race and "through soft degrees Subdue them to the useful and the good". Telemachus does not live for himself, like Ulysses, but he lives in function of other people. |
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Address to his mariners (lines 45-70) | Ulysses' mariners were faithful companions, and like Ulysses, during their travel they enjoyed and suffered. All they are old, and they are going to die, but death is not so important like their war against Gods. Even if they are old, their desire is to live an authentic life until death: "To sail beyond the sunset, and baths of all the western stars, until I die". |
3a)
Ulysses in the poem is an old man, who is unhappy of his present situation, because his duty is to rule a savage race, that does not know him, and his most important desire is to travel, because during his travel he knew: joy and suffering; that are the two components that makes an inauthentic life an authentic life.
Considering Ulysses' son Telemachus we can notice a contrast between the two characters: Ulysses takes decision for himself and for his life, while Telemachus takes decision not for himself but for other people.
Travel and voyage are symbol of life, and if you don't travel, you do not live.
Tennyson's Ulysses differs from Dante's Ulysses, because while Tennyson exalts his hero' eternally restless aspiration, Dante condemned Ulysses' curiosity and presumption.
3b)
The poet prefers Ulyyses's choice of life, because Ulysses lives his life travelling towards foreign lands and foreign people. Ulysses knew all that foreign people, and knowing them, he knew better himself. On the other side Telemachus does not travel, but he stay on Ithaca, so he does not live for himself, but lives for that "savage race".
4)
In my opinion the poem does reflect a sense of loss, not in an explicit way. Perhaps the poet wants to tell us through Ulysses and Telemachus's metaphor that Arthur Hallam life was a kind of life like Ulysses' one.
5)
The meter used is the blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme.