This document provides context and analysis for Tennyson's poems "Ulysses" and "Tithonus". It discusses how both poems were written after the death of Tennyson's friend Arthur Hallam in 1833. It then summarizes the Greek myth of Tithonus, who was granted immortality but not eternal youth by the goddess Eos. The rest of the document poses discussion questions about the form, structure, language, and themes of "Tithonus".

1. Language starter
• Look at the quotations selected below.
– Write a sentence about how they strike you,
paying particular attention to language and
imagery.
– Me only cruel immortality/ Consumes:
– after many a summer dies the swan
– Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath
– Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine/
Ere yet they blind the stars

2. Tennyson
Tithonus

4. Context for ‘Ulysses’, ‘Tithonus’
• ‘Ulysses’ was written within three weeks of his
friend Arthur Hallam’s early death in 1833.
• According to Tennyson the poem was written
under ‘a sense of loss and all that had gone by’;
this is balanced by his thought that ‘still life must
be fought out to the end.’
• ‘Tithonus’ was also written in the period following
Hallam’s death, probably in 1833.
• It was first published in 1860

5. The Myth of Tithonus
• The goddess of the Dawn, Eos, like her sister Selene , the Moon-
Goddess, was at times inspired with the love of mortals.
• Her greatest favourite was Tithonus son of Laomedon, king of Troy.
• She stole him away, and prevailed on Jupiter (Zeus) to grant him
immortality.
• She forgot to ask for him to be granted eternal youth.
• He grew old. She left him.
• He still had the range of her palace, lived on ambrosial food, and
was clad in celestial raiment.
• At length he lost the power of using his limbs, and then she shut him
up in his chamber, whence his feeble voice might at times be heard.
• Finally she turned him into a grasshopper.

6. Form, structure, language?
• What kind of poem is this?
– dramatic monologue
• Why is blank verse used?
– to capture the flexibility and character of a speaking voice
• What is the impact of the versification?
– ?
• What happens in the poem (and how is it structured,
therefore?)
– Is it imagined as being spoken at dawn with the gradual spread
of light? (How is this done?)
– What is the effect of the poet addressing Aurora?

7. Language:
• What is the effect of the inversion in line 5, with
regard to rhythm and intention?
• Why does Tithonius refer to himself as ‘he’ (lines
11-14)?
• What use is made of colour throughout?
• What use is made of formal, elevated diction?
• What use of repetition/ anaphora?
• What patterns of figurative language are there?
• What use of sound is there?

8. Language: contrasts
• What contrast is made between the persona
of Tithonus and the natural world at the
beginning of the poem?
• Find words and phrases to show the contrast
between the aged Tithonius and Aurora.
Analyse their impact.
• Identify the joys of youth, as presented in the
poem. With what words are they presented?
• It has been said that the poem is a realisation of
a long and meaningless future, after Hallam’s
death. Your thoughts?