TENNYSON’S ULYSSES – ACTIVITY

1.

• The greek hero, Ulysses, is speaking to an unidentifiable reader.

• He’s an old Ulysses: he’s already returned to Ithaca after his long journey.

• He’s in Ithaca, at home, where he’s ruling his people.

• He is planning to leave once again on a new trip with his old mates.

2.

• His past life: It has been full of good and bad emotions, a complete life. Now he feels nostalgic about it. The vocabulary used by Tennison reveal his enthusiastic mood when he remebers his past life (“All times I have enjoy'd”; “Much have I seen and known”). Expressions belonging to the semantic field of eternity and greatness arouse a sense of a never ending and full life, such as “All times”, “Greatly”, “For always”.

• View of present and future: He feels he’s wasting his time in the present. So he looks at the future as an opportunity to live his live until the last moment. He’s convinced that the one in the present isn’t life… life is knowing, discovering, and this is what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Present is linked to expressions which recalls boredon, sloth and inactivity, such as “dull”, “unburnish’d”.

• Attitude of Telemachus: he’s proud of him and he wants to lend his reign to him. Now that he’s going to leave again he’s son seems to be most indicated person to rule over Ithaca. He represents the right values to “subdue a rugged people”: he’s blameless and he’s devoted to gods.

• Adress to his mariners: the discourse he pronounces to his old mates sounds like an epic exhortation, as if he had to motivate soldiers before a war. Expressions like “Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me” or “Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods” contribute to create a sense of brotherhood, while words like “The thunder and the sunshine” create a typical epic atmosphere.

3a.

Ulysses is old: his long journey has come to an end and he has come back to Ithaca. But life there, with Penelope, is boring: he feels he’s wasting his time by ruling over a “savage race” and not by spending the last period of his life expanding his knowledge through adventure, as his entire life has been. He wants to satisfy his ambition and he’s determined to leave with the mariners: even if he’s old he has got the energy of a young man, or maybe more of a young man like his son Telemachus, who appears to be “weak” if compared to the father, since he’s the one who stays at home while she should the one who leaves for a journey. Ulysses seems to symbolize the typical imperialist: he reflects the mentality developed in the most advanced countries during the 19th century, in particular in England, where the general thought was to conquer the entire world. The difference one can immediately notice comparing Ulisses in Tennyson and Omero is that the latter is incredibly nostalgic towards Ithaca: he’s exhaust and he only wants to see his wife and his people again. Insteadhe Tennyson’s Ulysses doesn’t manage to stay in Ithaca for a long time (“I cannot rest from travel”) with an old wife and a rude race.

3b.

At first, Ulysses seems to admire his son, to be proud of him, but the reader can notice that if he is compared to his father, Telemachus is weak, inactive, while being young he should be the one who leaves for a journey. On the contrary, by the description of Telemachus, his old father appears to be the strongest.

4.

Yes, it seems so. The nostalgic way Ulysses talks and thinks about the adventures he lived with his friends reflect the weigh of his loss. He’s missing the “adventures” he used to have with his dearest friend, just like Ulysses is missing the same thing with his friends.

5.

The entire poem is a dramatic monologue. The structure is the typical one of poems and four sequences can be distinguished according to the thematic. The meter used is the iambic pentameter. A definite rhythm cannot be found, Ulysses’ words flow like a narrative sequence and the frequent use of the enjambements contributes to give a sense of fluidity. There is no rhyming scheme so the entire composition sounds more like an extract from an epic poem.