1) Read the poem through and say:  who is speaking and to whom  how old he is  where he is  what he is setting out on

-The speaker is the famous Ulysses, who is apparently speaking to one in particular: the technique used by the writer is the dramatic monologue; nobody will answer him, if not himself; anyway in the end there is a section in which he refers to his mariners

-He is old, even if his precise age isn't told; he continuely marks his proximity to death.

-Resorting to the first lines, it seems as if Ulysses is on his island, Ithaca; anyway in the last part the reader can't totally understand wheter Ulysses is by sea with his old marineers, or he is still in his island, just dreaming.

2) 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 rude; Negative adjectives such as idol, aged convey Ulysses’s total dissatisfaction with life on Ithaca;

His past life: he misses it, and recognises its value; words recall greatness and fame, but also knowledge and the unknown;

View of present and future (19-32): the present has to be accepted; there is still time to do something of useful, of respectable; words recall hope and a desire to work, to not stay still

Attitude to Telemachus (33-44): he knows he will be a greater king than him; he is intelligent and balanced, perfect to rule the island

Address to his mariners (45-70): his mariners were his friends, and were equal to him; they were the ones who shared joy and sadness with him, as any other experience

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

The Ulysses portrayed by Tennyson is different from the most commonly known one: he is old, he has already lived his life and his adventures, and know is taken to live in his Ithaca, where he can't be happy. Ulysses is a traveller, an adventurer, who needs to search for glory and the limits of human knowledge, and who can't do the king of an island, who can't be stopped by an old wife or by his population. He is the opposite of his son, who is probably going to be a good king (being him balanced, and made to live between limits; the same speaker tells they have two different jobs, meaning they are two different people): Ulysses can't stay in that prison even at his old age. His only desire is to travel, to do something of worthy, of great. His obsession with his past glories makes him unable to live the present, and makes him extremely romantic. Maybe, in an age of utilitarism and materialism, Tennyson's Ulysses is the symbol of a romantic rebellion: he is the heart who fights against the mere brain.

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

Ulysses (and so the author) doesn't side with his son, or with himself; he just tell they are two different kind of people, with two different characters and vision of life: both have their good and their bad sides, but no one is better than the other; anyway, the space left to Ulysses suggests that secretely Ulysses' way of seeing the world is to follow.

4) 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?

Everything in this text does; death is one of the central themes of the text, and is present in every line, every world with its heavyness: Ulysses feels a sense of loss for his past happiness, for his younger body and brain that made everything possible to him: anyway his heart is his last hope, being it still as brave and bold as it was once.

5) 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?

The poem has an allitterative register; its musicality is clear, as its sad tone: the lexicon refers to themes as death, nostalgy and old age; anyway sometimes this lets space to hope: adventure, glory and bravery are sometimes dominant.