ULYSSES

Lord Alfred Tennyson

Right from the title the reader understands that the content of the poem may be a description or a story concerning Ulysses.

The poem is written in blank verse and is presented as a dramatic monologue. In the poem, Ulysses, addressing an unspecified audience, describes his discontent in staying in his kingdom, Ithaca, after his long and adventurous voyage. Even if he is in his old age, Ulysses yearns to take a new voyage and to start new explorations, despite his reunion with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus.

In his behavioral qualities Tennyson's Ulysses recalls the research for knowledge of the character of Ulysses in Dante's Inferno; but Tennyson's Ulysses has not to face a divine will.

Right from the first lines, Ulysses is sitting near his fireplace, and he is thinking about his present condition. He expresses his indifference toward the "savage race" that he is expected to govern and his intense will to make his knowledge grow. His people is described as savage because they are only  able only to collect goods and to sleep, and they do not know the glorious past of their king. The man compares his present life (boring, quiet, with nothing interesting for an intelligent and curious man as he is) with his heroic past (battle of Troy, ten years voyage through Mediterranean), when he roamed with a "hungry heart", that is a hunger of knowledge, and when he was able to feed his "hungry heart".

He contemplates his age and eventual death and yearns further experiences and knowledge. He cannot rest from travel, and he is conscious that his voyages contributed to make him stronger and smarter. He remembers all the dangers and risks he had to face, and he is aware that if he sails for new adventures he will face new risks.

In the second part of the poem Ulysses introduces his son Telemachus, who will inherit his father's throne. Ulysses thinks that his son will be the suitable king fotr that land, one  who will govern "by slow prudence" and "through soft degrees". In addition he is also conscious that they are the opposites ("He works his work, I mine"). His son has the duty to educate the "savage race" to the useful and the useful, preserving the old religion and Gods, when Ulysses will leave for his voyage.

In the third section Ulysses addresses his mariners and companions, and he wants them to join him on another quest, making no guarantees as to their fate but attempting to evoke their heroic past: they were the perfect mates because they had "free hearts, free foreheads" to contrast nature's risks  and dangers on their voyage. He is yet conscious that they are all old, but before death comes he wants to make something of "noble note"; then he invites his friends not to fear the dangers and to feed their desire of knowledge sailing with him, even if they may eventually face death. He knows that their heroic hearts are made weak by time and fate, but he thinks that they are strong in will, able to fight and seek and not to yield.

The language used is dialogic and not too difficult to understand. This is the consequence of the literary form used: the dramatic monologue, which is conceived to be used in theatrical representations and then exposed to the audience like a dialogue.

In the poem the reader can find two different conceptions of life, represented by Ulysses and Telemachus, which are both good, but in clear opposition. The men behaves only in one of these ways: we can think withsome level of certainty that Tennyson identifies himself with Ulysses and seems to exalt the hero's conception of life.

For Ulysses it is counterproductive to put limits to  life and not to overtake them, having thus a plain and calm life: life will become less interesting for him, even if some men (like his people, "savage race") seem to long for that kind of life. Moreover Ulysses personifies the Englishmen of that period, who were busy colonizing  the world. His heroic mission can be compared to the pioneer missions in Victorian period, when the poet lived.

To sum up, Ulysses feels nostalgia for  his youth and a deep tension towards knowledge which pushes him to make another voyage, but he is conscious that he isn't strong as he used to when he was young; but he is also conscious that, even if physical strength changes, the temper of heroic people does not change, thus he feels ready to face the new duties towards discovery that the voyage brings with it, even if he is aware of the dangers he will find in the sea, with a probable death. Olld age, in that sense, idoes not represent a brake to action, but adds new awareness to one's fate.