ANALYSIS ULYSSES

The present text “Ulysses” was written by Tennyson and it speaks about the king Ulysses who is a Greek hero who had travelled a lot.

In the first four lines the speaking voice  explains the characters of the king  with the words “still hearth” and “match’d with an aged wife” and also the intelligent reader could understand that he does not want to stay in Ithaca.

In the next three lines there is a metaphor, the “savage race” is like animals because it just eats and sleeps and the savage race are for the king the citizen of Ithaca.

The intelligent reader understands reading the third line that the speaking voice is king Ulysses because he uses the subject pronoun “I”.

From line 8 to 15 the speaking voice tells something about his past life explaining what kind of life it was but he explains also that he wants to live a life of travel and adventure and he uses a metaphor to explain the concept “I will drink life to the lees” so he says that he wants to live life to the fullest.

In the next lines he tells that he became famous because he has travelled a lot “I am become a name” and he makes a list of his knowledge received by travelling.

There is another metaphor “roaming with a hungry heart” that means that he feels like a lion, so he fells powerful.

At line 21 there is another metaphor which resumes the concept of drinking “drunk delight of battle” to explain that he enjoys battles like he enjoys drinking.

Important is the sentence “I am part of all that I have met”, the intelligent reader understands that Ulysses left parts of himself everywhere he travelled and so it seems that he would not go back to Ithaca.

The speaking voice compares life with an arch and the last one with the “untraveled world” but the intelligent reader can identify the untraveled world with death.

Moreover the speaking voice makes a metaphor between some metallic instrument with the pause of travelling because when you travel you will shine but if you do not you will rust.

Then the king explains that every hour that he is saved from death he could learn something new and so he could explore new lands, the intelligent reader understands how important for the king is to travel and to make new experiences because this bring knowledge.

He also makes a metaphor between himself and an animal because he says “store and hoard myself” so he explains that if he stays in Ithaca he will became an animal.

In the next lines king Ulysses compares himself to its son Telemachus but he makes clear, right from the start, that his son is different from him because he is prudent and patient. Moreover through the words “I leaved my sceptre and the isle” the intelligent reader understands that king Ulysses gave to him the charge to reign.

At line 53 the intelligent reader could notice a personification of the “vessel” because the ship cannot puff its own sails and at line 56 there is a synecdoche because the speaking voice identifies the mariners with their souls.

At line 67 “the long day wanes: the slow moon climbs” is a metaphor to explain that that the end of the day is like the end of the life moreover  the intelligent reader could notice the opposition between the words “long” and “slow”.

In the last lines the king explains to his friends that they should travel until they die and the final lines are the most important because the king repeats that they are old but they are “strong in will” so they can travel yet.

The intelligent reader could also notice that the rhythm of the narration is a slow one and this could be a way to underline the desire of the king to live a life full of adventure and not to stay in pause at Ithaca.

The form of narration is the dramatic monologue in which the speaking voice is only one and it do not receive any answer.