Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Ulysses
Life After Adventure
Tennyson’s “Ulysses” features five unrimed blank verse paragraphs. About his poem, Tennyson explained, "Ulysses was written soon after Arthur Hallam's death, and gave my feeling about the need of going forward, and braving the struggle of life perhaps more simply than anything in In Memoriam." Thus, Tennyson’s “Ulysses” dramatizes the theme of struggling to face life after living through a cataclysmic experience.
First Verse Paragraph: “It little profits that an idle king”
In the first verse paragraph, the speaker, Ulysses, the Roman counterpart of the Greek “Odysseus,” complains that his life as “an idle king” is not worth much. His activity consists of administering justice to the citizens who do not even understand him. All they are interested in is sleeping and eating.
Second Verse Paragraph: “I cannot rest from travel: I will drink”
The habit of “travel” has become such a great part of the speaker’s life that he finds he is unable to rehabituate himself to a settled existence. He then catalogues the events and feelings that have kept him occupied most of his life during his adventures. While traveling, he became “a name” “roaming with a hungry heart.”
He reports, “Much have I seen and known; cities of men / And manners, climates, councils, governments, / Myself not least, but honoured of them all.” Compared to the excitement of the traveling life, settling down with an “aged wife” and trying to govern a territory seem dull and unsatisfying.
Although he has been back from his odyssey for only three years, he yearns to be able to set sail again: “How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!”
Third Verse Paragraph: “This is my son, mine own Telemachus”
In the third verse paragraph, Ulysses introduces his son, Telemachus. He describes his son as decent and capable of fulfilling the rôle Ulysses now fills. And the speaker makes it clear that he would prefer his son take over his governing responsibilities, so that he can continue his swashbuckling world-wide adventures: “When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.”
Fourth Verse Paragraph: “There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail”
The speaker then claims that in the harbor his ships are ready. And although he and his sailors are old, “Some work of noble note, may yet be done.” For the men who fought very great odds to return to their homes, the speaker avers that something useful should still be available for them accomplish.
Thus, Ulysses appeals to this sailors, “Come, my friends, / 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.” He insists that he still has goals to achieve and miles to travel before he is ready to give up his striving.
Fifth Verse Paragraph: “Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though”
Finally, the speaker admits that he and his sailors are not as strong as they used to be “in old days,” but although they may be weaker physically, they are nevertheless “strong in will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” They have the spiritual strength to conquer foes, whether those adversaries be external or internal.
Tennyson
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