Critical Analysis of 'Ulysses' by Alfred Lord Tennyson - Disha Chaudhry

Ulysses – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Ulysses is a poem written by the Victorian Poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the traditional blank verse in unrhymed Iambic Pentameter, which serves to impart a fluid and natural quality to Ulysses’ speech. It was written in 1833 and published in 1842. It is in the Dramatic Monologue form where the main principle controlling the poet’s choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest, the speaker’s temperament and character. Tennyson had a history of a troubled home environment, where he experienced, like the rest of his family, epilepsy fits, which kept his health below average always. His immediate family was unfortunately not handed down the family throne by his grandfather, who violated traditions and made his younger son his heir. His father’s physical and mental condition worsened and he became paranoid, abusive and violent. Later on, in 1827 Tennyson escaped with his two elder brothers to Trinity College in Cambridge to begin his journey as a poet. Through his four years in college, his friendship with Arthur Hallam, another precariously brilliant Victorian poet at the time. Their relationship made a huge impact on Lord Tennyson. As we can see his from his later works like “Ulysses”, “In Memoriam” and so on, these were a product of the grief Lord Tennyson experienced due to Hallum’s death from a serious illness. By 1850, at the young age of 41, he was appointed the most popular poet of the Victorian Era.

This poem is set when King Ulysses returns home to Ithaca from a long journey of fighting in the Trojan Wars. His pursuit of knowledge beyond human bounds and for his adventures in disregard of his family has been critiqued heavily on a positive and negative light.

The first stanza introduces us to the mindset of Ulysses. His idea of an ideal King is not of one who sits around the fire with his wife and making laws for people who don’t even know him. He compares people to a sort of animal (“savage race”), who needs to be fed and taken care of. He feels uneasy as he knows he is meant for more meaningful things. Here, we get to question Ulysses selfishly claiming his family and kingdom as less important to him than his needs and wishes. This demonstrated how he resembles flawed protagonists in earlier literature.

He continues speaking to himself by proclaiming that he “cannot rest from travel” but he still knows he needs to live “life to the leese”, as in he would want to obtain knowledge from every experience he wishes to pursue. He feels like he represents all who wander and roam the earth exposed to different type of people and ways of living. He has enjoyed greatly and suffered happily and he feels both experiences are important to keep a man alive and active. He was happy to know that he at least, fought with people who loved him for who he is and was ready to fight al battles with him. He does not want to let life pass him by. He mentions the “Hyades” which are a group of constellation Taurus often associated with rain; their rising in the sky generally coincides with the rainy season, therefore presented as agitators of the ocean which do not stop him from moving forward in his travels.

Ulysses then goes on to mention the various types of “manners, climates, councils, governments” he had come across and his thirst for knowledge is still not quenched (“hungry heart”). He was honored by all and never spoken to derogatively.”Windy Troy” being the city he recently had fought the Trojan War at, reminds him of the sounds of armor clashing against each other in battle. Ulysses declares that his travels and encounters have shaped who he is: “I am a part of all that I have met,” he asserts. He has left parts of himself everywhere he went, indicating how there is nothing left for him here, in Ithaca.  And it is only when he is traveling that the “margin” of the globe that he has not yet navigated, shrinks and fades, and ceases to stir him. As Ulysses moves, his experiences make an arch covering the arch of the “Untravelled World”. The more he travels, the more the margins or edges of that world recede or covered up. He is getting bored sitting on his own homeland and feels the urgency to leave yet again for another journey. He compares himself to a metal, that is still full of shine but if he is not active for a while he could rust, just like an unused metal would rust. He feels life is beyond just breathing and surviving. Ulysses feels this urgency to leave as he feels death is nearing him and hence refers to himself as a “sinking star” and “grey-spirited”.

When Ulysses decides to leave his throne to his son Telemachus, he compares the latter to himself as being less restless and more patient, therefore able to govern his throne when he is away. He talks about his people as “rugged people” who are uncivilized and uncultured, that’s why they need to be tamed and put to good use.

The day is ending and he watches the sunset. This sunset is symbolic of the nearing end of his life. He thus, calls on his men and asks them if they would join him in his last endeavor to a land beyond the “baths/ of all the western stars”. This refers to the outer ocean or river that the Greeks believed surrounded the (flat) earth, thinking the stars descended into these “baths”. He wants to go to the “happy isles” which refers to the Islands of the Blessed, or heaven where their personal hero, Achilles resides. Ulysses tells us about how he and his troop are not as young as they used to be with half the energy they used to have, there is still enough left to move them further. The use of Greek Mythology is persistently used in this poem as the poem is spoken by a famous Greek Hero. He tries giving them a motivational talk which ends with the famous words “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” which means they are strong because of their will to strive, and no one can stop them from having what they want.

However, this poem also concerns the poet’s own personal journey. As mentioned earlier, he composed this poem in the first few weeks after his dear friend Arthu Hallam passed away. In line 51, Tennyson mentions how “death closes all”. He expresses his own need of going forward and braving the struggle of life after the loss of his beloved. “Ulysses” like many of Tennyson’s other poems, deals with the desire to reach beyond the limits of one’s imagination. He mentions how he wants to go beyond the place where stars bathe themselves at night, he challenges norms in society, as he does not feel aimlessly following a herd would do any good for anyone. He feels the need to strip away from all who give him negativity, even though he is abandoning his wife and son. Some might say he could be selfish, but I believe I share a connection with his ideas. It is not about living selfishly, it is about how he lived his entire life thinking for his people and his kingdom, and now he wants to finally end his life whilst doing just that. Ulysses is almost like an antithesis, who eventually decides to move away from his kingdom and escape into more meaningful voyages. He devotes a full 26 lines to his own egotistical proclamation of his zeal for the wandering life and another 26 lines to the encouragement towards his mariners to roam the seas with him. On the other hand, there are only 11 lines devoted to his son and how he trusts his son with the kingdom Ulysses built with his own hands and another 2 words for his wife who lived for him her whole life, simply waiting for his return from these very voyages. I feel Ulysses’ loved ones understand his situation. He has lived most of life in travel, seeking knowledge and meeting new people. Any person used to a life like the one Ulysses used to lead, would never want to break away from it and retire peacefully. He would want to continue on doing what makes him happy, as that is what everyone seeks at the end of the day.

The symbols used in this poem were many. It helps the reader to create a better imagery in his or her mind, making the description more clearly to the reader. The power of Ulysses to face challenges straight in the eye makes me awe struck as that kind of courage is very rarely seen in times today.