Alfred Tennyson, "Ulysses" (analysis)

The text under analysis is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson in 1833 and first published in 1842. The title “Ulysses” immediately recalls to the reader’s mind the character belonging to classical mythology. King of Ithaca, Ulysses left the island, his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus to fight the war in Troy. He stayed away from his homeland for twenty years in total: ten years to fight the war, ten more to come back home (as narrated by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey). Ulysses is a figure particularly famous for his intelligence and curiosity. It has been portrayed several times in Literature: Homer and Dante Alighieri are just a few names.

Now, the question is: how does Tennyson portray Ulysses in his poem? How and why did he use him? Let’s try to answer the question by analysing the text.

The poem focuses on Ulysses’ thoughts and desires after his return to Ithaca. Indeed, Tennyson decided to structure the poem as a dramatic monologue: such narrative strategy allows the poet to investigate the character’s mind and show it to the reader by means of a monologue. The dramatic monologue also implies a silent audience, whose presence is hinted by the speaking voice. As the reader discovers through the reading, Ulysses addresses his companions, the men he travelled with for many years.

The monologue is organized into five stanzas of different length: each one of them is a step in the Ulysses’ line of reasoning, whose core is his life and experience. Moreover, the monologue is organized in order to form an ascending climax, whose purpose is to persuade the audience.

Ulysses’ reflection starts from his role as a king. After coming back to Ithaca, he had to resume his position and duties as a king. However, Ulysses is not satisfied and thinks that being a king doesn’t suit him anymore; Ulysses’ unease is provided by lexical choices such as “still hearth”, “barren crags”, “savage rage”, as well as by the use of the speaking voice itself: indeed, the first two lines are pronounced by what seems to be a third person speaking voice; on the other hand, at line 3 the speaking voice shifts to a third person. The purpose of such a choice may be to underline the fact that Ulysses doesn’t think he is suitable for the kingdom anymore: in fact, he doesn’t say “I, the king”, just “I” and “an idle king”. The reason behind the crack in Ulysses’ identity may be his long journey in the Mediterrean sea: the speaking voice explains better his problem in the second stanza.

The second stanza can be divided into two sequences:

• In the first one (from line 6 to line 18), Ulysses reflects on the years he spent travelling: they were a mixture of pleasure and pain, knowledge and glory, as suggested by the use of anaphor (“enjoyed greatly … suffered greatly”), of conjunctions (“both … and … and”) and by the use of sounds (the repetition of the letters “r” and “d/t” recalls the idea of a storm in the reader’s mind). Lines 6 and 7 anticipate the conclusion of the first sequence, which is that Ulysses became one with the experience of travelling the world: as the expressions “I am become a name” and “I am part of what I have met” imply, Ulysses’ heart make him a traveller and not a king anymore (while, as a matter of fact, he still is the king of Ithaca). After travelling for many years, Ulysses isn’t the same anymore: his identity is now broken into pieces, this being the reason he cannot be a king anymore.
• In the second sequence (from line 19 to line 32 – end of the stanza), Ulysses displays his desire to continue his journey. The sequence is opened by the adverb “yet”, which carries all of the speaking voice’s desire. The entire sequence is based on the contrasting connotations of the idea of travelling and that of staying in Ithaca: the first one is associated with light and movement (see lexical choices and verbs such as “gleams”, “to shine”, “to follow … a sinking star”); on the other side, the latter is associated with an idea of being static and absence of light (see lexical choices such as “dull”, “to rust unburnished”, “vile” and “gray spirit”). It is interesting to focus on lines 31 and 32: here the speaking voice seems to follow Dante’s lines, in which Ulysses tells his companions that they were made to follow virtue and knowledge (Dante, Inferno, XXVI, “Fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza”).

Ulysses desire to travel again leads him to think about who will take his place and throne. The speaking voice’s answer is quick: the third stanza is opened by the expression “this is my son, mine own Telemachus”. It seems the young man is on his father’s side and that Ulysses is showing him to the audience with his hand. The use of “my son” and “mine own” is a repetition whose function is to convince the audience that Telemachus will be a good king because he is Ulysses’ son. Telemachus is connoted in a positive way through lexical choices (“slow prudence”, “mite”, “soft degrees”, “useful”, “good”, “duties”, “tenderness”) and the repetition of the sound “s”. Such choices convey the idea of a balanced, hard-working and equitable person who knows what’s right and wrong. Telemachus seems to be his father’s opposite: the young man is balanced, right and ready to sit on the throne, while Ulysses seems to be in the middle of a storm.

Indeed, the fourth stanza is opened by a stormy setting: the wind “puffs the sail of the vessel” and the sea is dark and broad. The fourth stanza, along with the fifth one, is the last step of Ulysses’ reasoning: the speaking voice has now to convince the audience (the mariners) to leave Ithaca once again and sail with him, despite the stormy weather and their age. The persuasive sequence, organized as an ascending climax, is opened by Ulysses directly addressing the audience with “my mariners” (the possessive “my” makes his words stronger and more emotional). In order to convince them, Ulysses first recalls to their minds the pleasures and glory, the fatigues of the old times and then tells them that it is still possible to live all of it again. Ulysses draws the audience’s attention on the lack of time by describing the setting: the fading light, the rising moon and night are pictured in the reader’s mind with short sentences (they perfectly convey the idea of having little time to leave and travel: indeed, at the beginning of the poem sentences were long and covered several lines; here, however, they shortened to the point they cover only half a line). Short sentences also contribute to the ascending climax: they create tension and settle the ground for Ulysses’ call to his companions. The call resembles the orders Ulysses used to give them when they travelled together: once again he appeals to the old times and to nostalgia in order to convince them.

By the end of the fourth stanza, Ulysses reaches the peak of the climax: by telling the mariners the purpose of his journey, Ulysses effectively uses the names of the “Happy Isles” and of “the great Achilles”. Once again, the reader may find another reference to Dante’s Ulysses: the expression “it may be that the gulfs will wash us down” foreshadows Ulysses’ death as told by the Italian poet (in Dante’s Inferno, Ulysses and his companions surpassed the Pillars of Hercules and followed their persistent desire of knowledge; for this reason they were punished by God: their ship sunk in a storm and they were all sent to hell).

In the last stanza, Ulysses motivates his companions by saying that, despite their age, they have the necessary strength to travel: it’s a strength that depends on their minds and hearts. Here, Ulysses’ persuasion is mainly based on the use of anaphor: “much is taken, much abides”, “though … and though”, “we are, we are”, “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield”. The purpose of such choices may be to create sentences that easily stick into the mariners’ minds.

To sum up, from the analysis the reader may conclude that Tennyson shapes his Ulysses after Dante’s. Similarly to the Italian poet, Tennyson focuses his attention on the old Ulysses, the one that came back to Ithaca after his long journey in the Mediterrean Sea. Among the references to the Divine Comedy there are Ulysses’ death and the famous “orazion picciola”. As for the similarities between the poem and the “orazion picciola”, in both of them Ulysses addresses his companions and persuades them to leave Ithaca with him. More specifically, the whole poem could be considered a longer version of Ulysses’ speech in Dante’s Inferno. However, there are also some differences. Indeed, Dante’s Ulysses leaves Ithaca for his pure desire of knowledge. On the other hand, Tennyson adds some more reasons to Ulysses’ will to leave: the main reason is that Ulysses doesn’t suit the role of king anymore after his travelling. Also, Ulysses is perfectly aware of the closeness of death and wants to leave anyway.