1) Read the poem through and say:

• who is speaking and to whom: The narrator does not coincide with the poet. Indeed, the speaker is Ulysses who is reflecting on his personal experience, speaking to one person in particular who won’t answer to him. So, on one side the reader could suppose that the technique used by the writer is the dramatic monologue, on the other one could suppose that he is talking to his mariners, since at the end he refers to them.
• how old he is: he is old and often remarks his proximity to death, but there is not any clear reference to his age. 
• where he is: he probably is on his island, Ithaca.
• what he is setting out on: he is setting out on a voyage, considered as an opportunity to gradually know himself and as a way to leave an unsuitable life. Anyway, in the last lines the reader can't totally understand whether Ulysses is by sea with his mariners, or he is still in his island.

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.

• Life on Ithaca (lines 2-5): it is uncivilized and… Negative adjectives such as idle, aged convey Ulysses’ total dissatisfaction with life on Ithaca.
• His past life: he misses it and recognizes its value; he focuses on the way he lived and the great experiences he did. Each voyage was an opportunity to get to know himself, at the point that he says, “I am a part of all that I have met”. 
• View of present and future (19-32): he has to accept the present and recognizes he has still the time to do something useful and to go on with his search of knowledge; words recall hope and a desire to be active and work.
• Attitude to Telemachus (33-44): he recognizes Telemachus will be a great king since he is intelligent, balanced and suitable to rule Ithaca.
• Address to his mariners (45-70): his considers his mariners his friends. They shared with him the same adventures and feelings and were equal to him.

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

The Ulysses portrayed in the poem is different from the famous hero of the Odyssey: he is old, he has already lived his life and his adventures, and know is taken to live in his Ithaca, where he does not feel comfortable with himself. Ulysses is an adventurer who loves travelling and who needs to search for glory and knowledge. Indeed, he builds up his image and personality through experience. Therefore, he can't be the king of an island, since it mainly implies to stay for a long time there and he also can't be stopped by his wife. So, he wants only to travel and to do something worthy and useful, even when he is old. He is attached by his past fame and his obsession does not allow him to live the present at the best. All this is literary conveyed by the technique of the dramatic and interior monologue as the most suitable one to focus on the protagonist’s inner thoughts. In particular, the unsuitable present he is forced to live offers an occasion to Ulysses to reflect on his past adventures and makes future expectations. In addition, in this he is the opposite of his son Telemachus, symbol of Victorian society, who has the right skills to rule the uncivilized city of Ithaca. Taking the distance from every form of normality and static, Ulysses represents the rejection of tradition and becomes a symbol of the poets that have a great interiority, like him, and are far from the perspective of profit and rules of the Victorian Age.

3b) What is the poet’s attitude to Ulysses and Telemachus? With whom does it side?

The poet seems to side with Ulysses since the large space left for Ulysses by the poet suggests he prefers Ulysses’ active vision of life, always in search of knowledge and new experiences. On the other side, Telemachus appears as a traditional and static character, with all the suited qualities to rule.

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?

Yes, it does. Indeed, there are lots of references to death in the poem and Ulysses himself often remarks his proximity to death. In addition, in remembering his past, he feels a sense of loss since he cannot do the same experience of when he was younger, and he cannot feel the same. Now he has to accept the present, feeling lost and unsuitable since, by giving his past, it is as if he had lost also a part of himself and his personality.  

5) As you will have realized 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 poem is full of alliterative sounds, repetitions and enjambments which contribute to create musicality, but at the same time it has a melancholic tone with words that refer mainly to death, nostalgy and loss, even if in some lines the poet left the space for glory and hope (for example when Ulysses remembers his past adventures). Moreover, since the poem is based on a dramatic monologue, that here is like a transcript of a conversation where Ulysses seems speaking to someone, the poem has no rhyme or verse of the same length.