- Ulysses declares that he feels compelled to continue traveling and seeking new adventures until the end of his life, rather than remaining idle at home where he has reigned as king. - He encourages his crew to join him on one final voyage to sail beyond what is known and explore lands even beyond the sunset, despite being old. - Ulysses believes that by continuing to challenge himself with exploration and new experiences, he can stave off death for a little while longer and perhaps complete one last great deed before passing.

1. U L Y S S E S
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

2. CONTEXT
SUMMARY
ANALYSIS
THEMES
FIGURES OF SPEECH
IMPORTANT QUOTES

3. SUMMARY
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying
home with his old wife, giving out rewards and punishments for the
unnamed masses who live in his kingdom.
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4. I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have
enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both
with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore,
and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a
name;
For always roaming with a hungry
heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of
men
And manners, climates, councils,
governments,
• He proclaims that he “cannot
rest from travel” but feels
compelled to live to the fullest
and swallow every last drop of
life.
• He has enjoyed all his
experiences as a sailor who
travels the seas, and he
considers himself a symbol for
everyone who wanders and
roams the earth.
• His travels have exposed him to
many different types of people
and ways of living. They have
also exposed him to the battle’s
delight, while fighting the Trojan
War with his men.
• Ulysses declares that his travels
and encounters have shaped
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SUMMARY

5. Yet all experience is an arch
wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose
margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an
end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in
use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life
piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is
saved
From that eternal silence, something
more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it
were
For some three suns to store and
• Only when traveling the “margin” of
the globe that he has not yet
traversed shrink and fade, and
cease to goad him.
• Ulysses declares that it is boring to
stay in one place, and that to
remain stationary is to rust rather
than to shine.
• To stay in one place is to pretend
that all there is to life is the simple
act of breathing, whereas he
knows that in fact life contains
much novelty, and he longs to
encounter this.
• His spirit yearns constantly for new
experiences that will broaden his
horizons; he wishes “to follow
knowledge like a sinking star” and
forever grow in wisdom and in
learning.
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SUMMARY

6. This is my son, mine own
Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and
the isle,—
Well-loved of me, discerning to
fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to
make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft
degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the
good.
Most blameless is he, centred in
the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to
fail
• Ulysses now speaks to an
unidentified audience concerning
his son Telemachus, who will act
as his successor while the great
hero resumes his travels.
• He says, “This is my son, mine
own Telemachus, to whom I leave
the scepter and the isle.” He
speaks highly but also
patronizingly of his son’s
capabilities as a ruler, praising his
prudence, dedication, and
devotion to the gods.
• Telemachus will do his work of
governing the island while
Ulysses will do his work of
traveling the seas: “He works his
work, I mine.”
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SUMMARY

7. There lies the port; the vessel puffs
her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas.
My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought,
and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and
opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you
and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his
toil;
Death closes all: but something ere
the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet
be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove
with Gods.
• he tells us a ship is preparing to set
sail.
• The warriors/ sailors have gladly gone
through thick and thin for Ulysses.
• Ulysses says that his sailors
"opposed" whatever came in their way
– "thunder," for example – and they
did it as free men and with a lot of
confidence.
• Speaking of old age, Ulysses
suggests that even though old people
are respected, they also have
responsibilities.
• Ulysses knows that death will end
everything, but he still believes he can
do great things, things worthy of men
who fought against the will of the gods
during the Trojan War.
• The Trojan War wasn't a war between
men and gods, but occasionally the
gods would come down and fight with
either the Greeks or the Trojans.
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SUMMARY

8. The lights begin to twinkle from the
rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon
climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come,
my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose
holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us
down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we
knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and
tho'
We are not now that strength which in old
days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we
are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
• He declares that although he and they
are old, they still have the potential to
do something noble and honorable
before “the long day wanes.”
• He encourages them to make use of
their old age because “ ’tis not too late
to seek a newer world.” He declares
that his goal is to sail onward “beyond
the sunset” until his death.
• Perhaps, he suggests, they may even
reach the “Happy Isles,” or the
paradise of perpetual summer
described in Greek mythology where
great heroes like the warrior Achilles
were believed to have been taken
after their deaths.
• Although Ulysses and his mariners
are not as strong as they were in
youth, they are “strong in will” and are
sustained by their resolve to push
onward relentlessly: “To strive, to
seek, to find, and not to yield
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SUMMARY

9. ANALYSIS

10. Background
• This poem is written as a dramatic monologue: the entire poem is
spoken by a single character, who reveals his identity by his own
words.
• The lines are in blank verse.
• Some lines are enjambed, which means that a thought does not end
with the line-break, and continues to another line.
• Tennyson reworks the figure of Ulysses by drawing on the ancient hero
of Homer’s Odyssey and the medieval hero of Dante’s Inferno.
• This poem is an elegy for Tennyson’s friend. Ulysses, who symbolizes
the grieving poet, proclaims his resolution to push onward, although
knowing about the death in front.
• The poem expresses Tennyson’s own “need of going forward and
braving the struggle of life” after the loss of his beloved Hallam.
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11. Analysis of Ulysses Character
• “Ulysses,” deals with the desire to reach beyond the limits of
one’s field of vision and the mundane details of everyday life.
• Ulysses’ incompetence as a ruler is evidenced by his
preference for potential quests rather than his present
responsibilities.
• he offers a lukewarm praise to his son concerning the
governance of the kingdom in his absence, and a mere two
words about his “aged wife” Penelope.
• Thus, the speaker’s own words betray his abdication of
responsibility.
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12. THEMES

13. Mortality
• Ulysses knows that death is stalking him, and he
wants to try and cheat it for as long as he can.
• In other words, he wants to try to steal as many
moments as he can before the curtain drops.
• And he thinks by traveling more he can somehow
forestall death, can make the "eternal silence"
wait just a bit longer for him.
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14. Exploration
• he's on his way out the door again because he's
not done looking for new places.
• Ulysses knows he might die, but the search, the
process of exploring, satisfies him in ways that
nothing else can.
• Ulysses wants to seek a "newer world," by which
he means a world that isn't as ancient as his own.
• Ulysses is an who wants to take what he can
from them.
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15. The Virtues of Perseverance and
Optimism
• After the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, Tennyson
struggled a lot.
• . During his time of mourning, his poems are mostly
about the temptation to give up and fall prey to
pessimism, but they also extol the virtues of optimism
and discuss the importance of struggling on with life.
• The need to persevere and continue is the central
theme of “Ulysses” (1833), written after Hallam’s death.
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16. Old Age
• Ulysses resembles a retiree, someone who's had
a long, eventful life and has been forced to hang
it up just a bit too soon.
• Death is stalking him. So he wants to explore
before death takes over him.
• Ulysses has spent twenty years away from home
• He doesn't want to spend his few remaining years
sitting around watching his son take over the
kingdom.
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17. LITERARY
&
POETIC
DEVICES

18. ALLITERATION
o The repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick
succession. For example, the sound of /f/ in “Free hearts, free
foreheads—you and I are old”.
PERSONIFICATION
o It give human qualities to an inanimate object. For example, “For
always roaming with a hungry heart”. Here, the heart is personified
as if it can experience hunger.
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METAPHOR
o It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made
between different objects. For example, “How dull it is to pause, to
make an end; To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use.” Here, the poet
compares himself to a dull and lifeless surface.
L
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19. o a poem spoken by a single person to an audience. The
audience can be one person or a group of people. “Ulysses” is
a famous dramatic monologue
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DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
FREE RHYME / BLANK VERSE
o a type of poetry that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter.
This is a free-verse poem with no strict rhyme scheme or a
metrical pattern
P
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20. o T is not too late to seek a newer world.
o To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
o To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
o …I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;
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QUOTES

21. ABOUT POET
• ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
• 1809-92
• Queen Victorian age
• Poet Laureate from 1850-92
• Britain Poet
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22. ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
“…but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not
to yield”
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23. REFERENCE

24. ONLINE SOURCES
• SHMOOP
https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/poetry/ulysses-
tennyson
• POETRY FOUNDATION
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses
• SPARK NOTES
https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/themes/
• LITERARY DEVICES
https://literarydevices.net/ulysses/
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25. THANK YOU