The purpose of the present text is to  analyze Ulysses by Tennyson. 

First of all, considering the title, the first connection that comes to the reader’s mind is with Omero’s Odyssey. The reader can be curious to find out the similarities between the two poems. The traditional Ulysses is a Greek hero extremely curious to explore the world. 

Going on, considering the structure, it is a 70 lines dramatic monologue. The only character is the first person narrator, whose identity is revealed by his own words. He is Ulysses, an old king from Ithaca. Considering the content, the text can be divided into three sections: in the first one Ulysses speaks about his life and his past experiences, in the second one he introduces his son Telemachus. and in the third one he addresses to his mariners and invites them to sail with him.

Taking into consideration the sound level, there are no rhymes and the verse is free. As a consequence the monologue appears more likely. When the subject is traveling, there are many open vowel sounds conveying the idea of something distant and undefined.

Right from the start the characterization is full of adjectives such as idle, still, barren aged and savage describing an unusual king that doesn’t stand his subjects. On the other hand, Telemachus is characterized through extremely positive adjectives such as most blameless, centered and decent.  

Considering the figures of speech, the text is littered with metaphors and similes. The first metaphor judges Ulysse’s subjects as animals: they hoard, sleep and feed. The second one judges life as a bottle of something to drink until the end. This metaphor ca be connected to another one that judges the delight of battle with the enjoy emend of drinking a beverage.  Going on there is an important simile: life is described as an arch of experiences covering another arch of the untraveled world. The metaphors continue until the end, making the text complex to understand. There are also other complex figures of speech such as the methonimy “three suns” to indicate three years .

Reading the text, the overall effect is somehow ironic. The old Ulysses doesn’t seem able to accept his old age and wants to live pretending to be still young and valorous. He egoistically wants to leave all behind himself and sail towards new lands. Un the other hand, his son, who is much younger than him, appears  calm and with his head on his shoulders.

Taking into consideration all that said before, I think the ideal reader should be a very learned on because the text is full of figures of speech conveying hidden meanings. In addition I think that to better appreciate the text the ideal reader should have read Omero’s Odyssey.