Luca Iaccarino – VA

ANALYSIS OF ULYSSES BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

The text that I have to analyze is Ulysses, a poem in blank verse written by the Victorian poet Alfred Lord Tennyson in 1833 and published in 1842.

The whole text may be considered a dramatic monologue, which is carried out by Ulysses, who is talking to unknown and silent listeners. Therefore Ulysses is the main character, he is old and he came back to Ithaca but he does not like his present condition, he would like to revive the past and so he decides to start a new voyage: the last one. It goes without saying that Ulysses’ image is taken from Homer’s Odyssey and from Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia, Inferno XXVI; indeed Homer’s Odyssey reminds the idea of the prophecy of Ulysses’ last voyage, while Dante’s Inferno XXVI describes Ulysses’ voyage and ends with his death due to his thirst for knowledge.

Considering the structure of the dramatic monologue the reader can notice that it is arranged in only one stanza and so on one hand it seems as if its purpose is to leave the reader breathless, while on the other hand it seems as if its purpose is to convey the idea of the main character’s thoughts which are expressed thanks to the dramatic monologue and so they represent the illogical disorder of the mind.

However I think that the poem may be arranged into fourth parts.

The first part (1 - 12 lines) starts with Ulysses’ discourse: he is old and he wants to renounce his static Kingdom in order to live new adventures. Indeed he states: I cannot rest from travel; he is nostalgic for his past adventures, he is a hero and so he wants to voyage, fight, reach glory and dead: you are a hero only if you die. So within the first part of his discourse he underlines the baseness of Ithaca’s inhabitants using specific words such as savage race, stating that they want unequal laws and describing them as wild beasts which hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. Moreover it seems as if the landscape represents inhabitants’ primitiveness: by this still hearth, among these barren crags. At the same time he introduces the theme of knowledge that may be considered as the leitmotiv of the whole poem; it is introduced in contrast with the image of Ithaca’s inhabitants, which do not want to reach knowledge. Instead Ulysses believes that knowledge is the main purpose of life and in order to convey this idea he uses different expressions such as I will drink / Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d / Greatly, have suffer’d greatly or For always roaming with a hungry heart. Therefore you have to live intensely,  in short: Carpe diem.

Within the second part (13 – 32 lines) Ulysses states that he travelled a lot, he known lots of people from different countries and with different cultures and he believes that what he is is due to his travels and encounters: I am a part of all that I have met. Besides he declares that he does not want to stay in Ithaca, because there life is tedious and it seems as if life were breathing; Ulysses is old, in a little while he will die and so he does not want to lose time but to follow knowledge like a singing star. So here Ulysses introduces the theme of death that may be considered as the most important element of the second part. The reflection about death starts when he states: all experience is an arch wherethro’ / Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades; experience and so life fade because they are approaching to death. Afterwards the theme of death is underlined by expression like to make an end, to rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use, eternal silence, gray spirit. The second part ends remembering that people are doomed to die and so they have to follow knowledge in order to go beyond limits.

Within the third part (33 – 43 lines) he introduces his son Telemachus, who is considered as the Right King to govern the country; therefore Ulysses can leave home without the fear of the anarchy. The whole third part speak about Telemachus and what is his task: to rule justly. The function that he will have to take on is very important and it is underlined by expression like Subdue them to the useful and the good. Besides Ulysses underlines inhabitant’s baseness stating that they are a rugged people.

In the fourth part (44 – 70 lines) of the dramatic monologue he exhorts his mariners to make a new voyage, he encourages them to make use of their old age because it is not too late to seek a never world. Here the two most important themes of the poem: death and knowledge are strictly connected; death is near but Ulysses and his mariners can make some work of noble note in order to get more knowledge. Indeed it is not too late to seek a new world and the concept of going beyond limits that is developed within the second part is re-introduced thanks to the landscape: To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths / Of all the western stars. The landscape is very important within the dramatic monologue; indeed it allows to express different concepts in a way that draws the reader’s attention. For example at the beginning of the text there is the expression the dim sea, while in the last part the expression broad seas and these remind the idea of the vastity of knowledge. To conclude in the last three lines Ulysses synthesizes his condition and his mariners’ condition: they are old, but at the same time they have a strong will and they have to strike, to seek, to find and not to yield in order to get knowledge.