HOMEWORK – Analysys of an extract from Ulysses – Lord Alfred Tennyson
(1) There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail
(2) There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
(3) Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me —
(4) That ever with a frolic welcome took
(5) The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
(6) Free hearts, free foreheads — you and I are old;
(7) Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
(8) Death closes all: but something ere the end,
(9) Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
(10) Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
(11) The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
(12) The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
(13) Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
(14) 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
(15) Push off, and sitting well in order smite
(16) The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
(17) To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
(18) Of all the western stars, until I die.
(19) It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
(20) It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
(21) And see the great Achilles, whom we knew

(22) Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
(23) We are not now that strength which in old days
(24) Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
(25) One equal temper of heroic hearts,
(26) Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
(27) To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

The extract begins with a deictic (“There”), typical of the dramatic monologue which embeds forms of common speech.
Ulysses points at the port and through a personification of the sea, which glooms (line 2), conveys the climate conditions. He is addressing his companions, inviting them to go for further adventures.
The reader perceives that there is a very close relationship between Ulysses and his mariners since they’ve faced together both difficulties and pleasant moments and weathered life’s storms over many years (“the thunder and the sunshine” – line 5).
“Free hearts and free foreheads” alludes to the Victorian contrast between head and hart which didn’t exist in the Greek world where choices were the result of the union of head and heart and therefore Ulysses is free of this contradiction.
Ulysses’s attitude towards his age is expressed at line 7: he believes that even in old age men can have honour in following their ideals.
From line 8 to line 10 Ulysses makes considerations about the fact that once you have died you can’t do anything anymore so you should have many experiences as possible in life since it is in the human nature to have the possibility to do “some work of noble note”. In this line the alliteration of letter “n” focus the reader’s attention on the word “noble”. To be “noble” you must give the best of yourself. And this assignment is “not unbecoming men that strove with Gods”, which they are.
From line 11 to line 13 the narrator exploits the description of the environment (“The lights begin to twinkle”, “The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices”) to convey the feeling of something that is extinguishing like the life of the old protagonist.
But Ulysses strongly believes that is never too late to “seek a newer world” (line 14), so he reveals himself an old men with a young spirit.
He wants “to sail beyond the sunset” (line 17) where there is darkness, metaphor for an the unknown.
Many references to the typical geographic/mythological places of Greek follow. To encourage his companions, Ulysses suggests they may even reach the “Happy Isles,” or the paradise of perpetual summer were heroes (like Achille) were believed to have been taken after their deaths.

The last section is an invite to go on living intensely with passion, curiosity and desire to know.
The insistence on the verb “to be” in the phrase “that which we are, we are” is a critic to the Victorian age which based its values on appearance more than being. The message the narrator wants the reader to understand is that we are not what we have, but what we are.
In the end Ulysses underlines that even he and his mariners are not as strong as they were in youth they are now “strong in will” (line 26) and they are capable to sail “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (line 27).