Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
1) Read the poem through and say:
- Who is speaking and to whom?: Ulysses is speaking to us
- How old he is: he is senior
- Where he is: he is on his island: Ithaca
- What he is setting out on: he wants to set on because he doesn't accept the life on Ithaca, and he prefers his previous adventurous life.
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 treats and attitudes. The first point has been written for you.
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 (11 - 18) | I become a name..I am a part of all that I have met...Ulysses remembers his past. He used word like honour, drunk delight and the evoked scenes are epic. |
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View of present and future (19-32) | Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'...beyond the utmost bound of human thought...he used words like gleams fades, to rust, breathe, eternal silence against gray spirit. Ulysses is old but he wants to know the world. |
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Attitude to Telemacus (33-44) | This is my son, mine own Telemacus...when I am gone. He works his work, I mine. Ulysses uses word like prudence, to emphasize the Telemacus' maturity to reign but he also underlines the different behaviour that have his son towards his job. |
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Address to his mariners (45-70) | There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail...to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Ulysses uses words to encourage his old mariners towards new adventures because his wants to know the world. |
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3a) How is Ulysses portrayed in the poem? To answer the question, consider:
- His present situation
- The contrast with Telemacus
- What he can be taken to be symbolic of
- Whether he differs from the picture we usually associate with the hero of the Odyssey
In my opinion Ulysses is portrayed as an old man who that doesn't want to live in a "death society",
as a matter of fact he is born to voyage towards new knowledge; he wants to left Ithaca, while his son Telemacus wants to stay in order to reign the island. Ulysses, like Victorian poet, represents the fracture between the society, which try only to satisfy their necessity, and the hero who wants to live and to know.
3a) What is the poet's attitude to Ulysses and Telemacus? With whom does it side?
In my opinion the poet is ironic toward Telemacus' choices, while he appreciated Ulysses' idea of life
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?
The sense of loss in this poem is reflected in the incapacity of Ulysses to adapt himself in Ithaca's society.
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 meter and the music of the poem and the relationship with its meaning?
The speaker's language is austere and strong, and it expresses Ulysses' conflicting humour as he searches for continuity between his past and future. There is often a marked contrast between the sentiment of Ulysses' words and the sounds that express them