In this article, I'll be reviewing Lord Tennyson's famous poem, Ulysses. You can find and read his poem here, and I would reccomend it, as it's not only an exellent contemporary piece, it's also critical to understanding my analysis below. I chose to review this poem because of it's huge impact to the literature of the time, it's subject matter and structure are thought provoking, and in the end, it's just a classic.
Being a poem entitled, “Ulysses”, I half expected it to be a romantic recounting of the heroic Greek warrior himself. The other half was maybe the inspiration for Franz Ferdinand’s rock song of the same name, but that’s another medium altogether.
In a way it did tell the tale of Ulysses, but not the traditional greek hero of myth. No, this is the Middle-aged Ulysses. The pinned down by marriage but not forgotten Ulysses. The Ulysses that had a kid and responsibility now. Tennyson gives the narrative authority through Ulysses, in the form of him talking about his son Telemachus, and how he’ll be leaving him to watch over the homestead(stz.33-43) He also talks about his exploits such as the battle of Troy and the people he’s met, showing that this is a well-traveled Ulysses(stz. 13-18). However, he’s far from done with his heroic lifestyle.
He’s bored and and unsatisfied right from the get-go; “It little profits that an idle king,/by this still hearth, among these barren crags,/ Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole/Unequal laws unto a savage race,/That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and not know me/”. This dramatic mood sets the average greek stage, and the reader is sent back in time to early attica. As ulysses ponders on about how dissatisfied he is with life, the poem eventually shifts to a lighter, and more hopeful tone as he realises he can still pursue personal travel. (stz. 63-70)
To me the poem captures two main symbolic feelings; The hope and anticipation that’s captured in Ulysses’s soul- the beginning of a new adventure. The second idea comes to the reader’s mind is that this is probably Ulysses’s last adventure, as he is older and does eventually die at sea (by his own son’s hand, mysteriously). This poem portrays naievety in it’s purest form, and the rousing cry of doing something insane for no reason. This warms my heart somehow.
The only place where I take points off is that Ulysses leaves his wife and kid to go adventuring. Nice job taking responsibility, Ulysses. 7/10
