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VMischis - Activity about Ulysses

by VMischis - (2020-04-01)

Up to 5LSA B - IV WEEK : March 29th,2020 - V WEEK: April 4th,2020 - Victorian Poetry

Read the poem through and say:

who is speaking and to who? The speaker is Ulysses who is talking to him self, because it’s a monologue

how old he is? He is old.

where he is? He is in Ithaca

what he is setting out on? He is going away and he leaves his reign to his son Telemaco.

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 uncivilised and… Negative adjectives
	such as idol, aged convey Ulysses’s total
	dissatisfaction with life on Ithaca

His past life	He is talking about what was his past life: he saw lots of countries with different cultures and morals. The use of the adverb “greatly” with the words and “enjoy’d” “suffer’d” bring the impression that he lived a satisfactory life. Through the phrase “I become a name” means that he became a relevant persone.

View of present and future (19-32)	The view he has of the present is that you must not be static life. Indeed the view of the future is that you must use every hour and every istant because each of the them can bring new things. The use of positive concepts such as “but every hour is saved” and “to follow the knowledge like a sinking star”.

Attitude to Telemachus (33-44)	Ulysses trust his son Telemachus indeed he leaves to him the control of Ithaca.

Address to his mariners (45-70)	Ulysses is attached to his mariners because they passed the same difficulties and he consider them “free hearts”, “free foreheads”, “sunshine”, “noble” create an idea of a new beginning. The end of the text brings the message that people must go forward.

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

Ulysses is the hero of the poem but in the present he is old and he is not satisfied by is new life, which is a domestic life, but he sentimentaly thinks about his heroic past.

Now he is at Ithaca with his son Telemachus, and Ulysses want to leave his reign to Telemachus because he knows the difference between him and his son, indeed he is able to govern Ithaca.

He differs from the picture of the hero od the Odyssey is that he is a tragic hero who fights with her interior feelings because he is uncertaint to pass the last part of his life in a boring way or to leave Ithaca and be again the hero he was.

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

The poet sides with Ulysses because he recognizes his young spirit.

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?

The sense of loss can be observed when Ulysses talks about his mariners and the attachment that he has for them.

As you will have realised 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?

There is a contrast between sentiment of Ulysses words and the sounds that express them particularly the phrases about his past and future life. Moreover the metre is slowed down by the use of enjambements.