In terms of style, the poem reflects Tennyson’s love of the classics, particularly Homer’s epics and Virgil’s Aeneid, both of which are alluded to. He doesn’t really care: he is just determined to set sail for new adventures once more. He is, as it were, sailing off into the unknown.) Ulysses wonders if he will manage to find “the Happy Isles” (63), the Greek equivalent of Paradise, a sort of heaven. (Remember that Ulysses, as an ancient Greek, knew nothing of America. Now he intends to sail to the edge of the known world, through the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) and then on into the Atlantic Ocean. He intends to set off once more indeed his ship and some of his old companions are waiting ready in the port (44-49). So, he will leave his son, Telemachus, to take over the rule of his kingdom, gradually to turn his savage people into decent citizens (33-38). He hates the shortness of life, and wants to use up every precious second in adventure: “To follow knowledge like a sinking star, / Beyond the utmost bound of human thought” (31-32). Yet, he yearns for something more: “that untravelled world” (20) – the world he hasn’t yet seen or explored. Then (lines 6-17) Ulysses remembers his great adventures in the past, particularly the time when he fought in the great battles at the siege of Troy (“the ringing plains of windy Troy”, 17). His people are rough and ready, only interested in a simple life of eating and sleeping: they have no aspirations (8). Seemingly, he wants to set off on a voyage that will take him to the edge or to beyond the edge of the known world.Īt the beginning of the poem, Ulysses feels that, as ruler of Ithaca, his life is useless. Ulysses has fought his way through the ten years’ Trojan war, and experienced huge adventures on the way to his island home of Ithaca. This poem has been a favourite of explorers and mountaineers, and other people who have pushed themselves to extremes. Tennyson speaks in the voice of Ulysses (or Odysseus), the great hero of Homer’s poem The Odyssey, the story of the aftermath of the siege of Troy. Paradise or Elysium.Ħ4 Achilles: the great Greek warrior, Ulysses’ companion in the siege of Troy. the place where the stars appear to sink into the sea).Ħ3 the Happy Isles: i.e. when they battled with the Gods (as well as men) during the siege of Troy.Ħ0-61 and the baths / Of all the western stars: to sail beyond the horizon (i.e. 150-53.ĥ3 men that strove with Gods : i.e. This echoes one of Tennyson’s favourite speeches in Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, III. This is an epic circumlocution, a grand way of saying something simple.ġ3-14 these lines echo the beginning of Homer’s Odyssey.ġ7 ringing plains: they were “ringing” because of the huge sound of the battles between Trojans and Greeks.Ģ3 rust unburnished: rust like an unused sword. Ulysses means “and when I was in the roughest seas”. The rising of the Hyades was thought to create storms. Lees are the sediment at the bottom of some drinks.ĩ-11 and when … sea: and when through fast-moving clouds (“scudding drifts”) the stars that provoke storms (the Hyades) whipped up (vext) the pale sea. Department of Economics and International Studies EventsĤ unequal: variable (it does not mean “unjust” here)ĥ hoard, and sleep: an echo of Hamlet, IV.Department of Economics and International Studies.Resources and language learning strategies.The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found.Resources for Schools – English GCSE & AS Level.Content Creation, Digital Media and Journalism.Department of English and Digital Media.Department of History and History of Art.South and South East Asia Security Research Centre (SSEASRC) – Library.South and South East Asia Security Research Centre (SSEASRC).Global Security & Intelligence Notes (GSIN) – Library.Global Security & Intelligence Notes (GSIN).Africa Security Research Centre (ASRC) – Library.Double Degree MA Programme in PPE and Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy.Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS).School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
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