-Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson-

-Analysis lines 1-17- 

The poem is an interior monologue. As all Victorian monologues, it deals with the interior emotion and thoughts of a character, a dramatis persona, which seems to directly speak to an audience.

The protagonist of this monologue is Ulysses, as the title itself suggests. The man is expressing his feeling about his coming home.

Right from the start, Ulysses, the great hero, seems not so great. He is not at all satisfied about his situation: he can't stand his reign, an island of "barren crags"(line 2), he can't stand his "aged wife" (line 3) and his whole people, a "savage race" (line 4).

Ulysses describes his people as men who "hoard, and sleep and know not me" (line 5). The reader immediately understands his point of view about them: Ulysses doesn't hold them in esteem, he thinks they are just concerned in surviving, without any moral rule. They don't even know their king, and they don't care about that.

Further on in the poem, the protagonist starts making a reflection on his life. He states that he can't rest from travel. Although he is old, he isn't able to stay in his island; he wants to live to the highest degree until his death.

He has always had a great life, so he can't help regretting his past deeds. He revives them in his mind: he has lived all kind of experiences, from the most happy to the least, both alone and with his companions.

He has travelled all over the world, so much that he has "become a name" (line 11): his fame has made him famous abroad in many "cities of men" (line13). He was not only one among many others, he was "honour'd of them all" (line 15).

Ulysses seems an unsatisfied man. He is not happy about his return: the land he longed for for a long time, is not at all as he had imagined. His people seems lacking of morality and the island itself seems a desert land. Furthermore, he isn't able to face a still life, he misses his past dynamic life, his travels and the great excitement of a battle.

Such feelings and the repetition of the pronoun "I" which is always displayed at in the central part of most of the lines serve to Tennyson to render the romantic nature of Ulysses, a hero that is always looking for knowledge, and to express the existential nature of his speech. He has to decide whether to act, and leave the island again, or to stay, and keep half-living as he is doing right now.