Ulysses

‘Ulysses’ was written in the aftermath of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s close friend’s death (Arthur Hallam). In this poem, Tennyson attempted to come to terms with the loss. Taking one of the most famous characters from one of the oldest stories ever told – Ulysses (otherwise known as Odysseus) from Homer’s epics, the Iliad, and the Odyssey – and repurposes the story to fit certain themes.

Ulysses
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king,By this still hearth, among these barren crags,Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and doleUnequal laws unto a savage race,That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.I cannot rest from travel: I will drinkLife to the lees: All times I have enjoy'dGreatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with thoseThat loved me, and alone, on shore, and whenThro' scudding drifts the rainy HyadesVext the dim sea: I am become a name;For always roaming with a hungry heartMuch have I seen and known; cities of menAnd manners, climates, councils, governments,Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;And drunk delight of battle with my peers,Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.I am a part of all that I have met;Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fadesFor 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 lifeWere all too little, and of one to meLittle remains: but every hour is savedFrom that eternal silence, something more,A bringer of new things; and vile it wereFor some three suns to store and hoard myself,And this gray spirit yearning in desireTo follow knowledge like a sinking star,Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

         This is my son, mine own Telemachus,To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfilThis labour, by slow prudence to make mildA rugged people, and thro' soft degreesSubdue them to the useful and the good.Most blameless is he, centred in the sphereOf common duties, decent not to failIn offices of tenderness, and payMeet adoration to my household gods,When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

         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 tookThe thunder and the sunshine, and opposedFree 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.The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deepMoans round with many voices. Come, my friends,'T is not too late to seek a newer world.Push off, and sitting well in order smiteThe sounding furrows; for my purpose holdsTo sail beyond the sunset, and the bathsOf 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 daysMoved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;One equal temper of heroic hearts,Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Summary

‘Ulysses’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson presents the indomitable courage and adventurous zeal of old Ulysses.

This poem attempts to imagine life from the perspective of the title character, Ulysses. After ten years away from home, the Greek is now faced with the prospect of one final voyage. But, after a decade of adventures, the character dwells on whether he wants to remain with the mundanity and boredom of life at home, as well as whether he is the same man who left all those years ago.

Put simply, Ulysses is a man of adventure. The poem focuses on whether he could ever tolerate a simple, traditional home life. Instead, he imagines life on the open seas, the perils of his adventures, and the chances to demonstrate his bravery. But he is growing old. Looking back over his life, as well as his present and potential future, Ulysses considers how he feels about his mortality. The poet ends his poem with an exciting and enduring line. It reads: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Ulysses Mythology

The story of Ulysses is perhaps most famous for the kidnapping of Helen of Troy and the efforts of Ulysses and his men to take her back from the Trojans. Homer’s story involves the Trojan horse, the Cyclops, and Ulysses’s efforts to make it back home to reach his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus.

Meaning

The title of Tennyson’s blank verse poem refers to the Homeric hero Odysseus. Ulysses is the Latin variant of his name. He is the epic hero of the epic, The Odyssey, and a legendary king of Ithaca. Tennyson talks about the hero from a specific perspective. He does not dive deeper into the features of Ulysses’ younger self. Rather he refers to the aged Ulysses who is ready to leave Ithaca for one last voyage with his old companions. The main idea or the meaning of the poem is that one should not stop even if the body is old. One’s mind should always be evergreen and ready to escape “contentment”. One’s desire for going beyond the limits should be kept alive until bodily death.

Form

Tennyson’s poem is a dramatic monologue. It is directed to the world at large. In fact, in the line, “Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old,” Ulysses does make one indication of who his audience might be, suggesting that both “you and I are old,” indicating the aged nature of the world around him, hoping to elicit some sympathy from the reader.

This form is slightly different from a soliloquy (such as the soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays) in that it is not spoken to a theatrical audience, but rather to the wider readership. Readers can think of it as one half of a conversation.

Meter

This poem uses a very specific meter– iambic pentameter. This is the traditional meter used in classical English poetry. This choice means that every line has ten syllables, split into five groups of two known as iambs or iambic feet. Each one of these two-syllable features first an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed one. For example: “It little profits that an idle king”. Breaking this down, we can see the unstressed and stressed syllables as:

It lit/tle pro/fits that/ an id/le king

The bold words are the stressed syllables, each one following the first, unstressed syllable of the iamb. Let’s look at another line: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”. Becomes:

To strive,/ to seek,/ to find,/ and not/ to yield

Perhaps the most famous line in the poem, this closing line also demonstrates how iambic pentameter adds a pounding, heartbeat-like rhythm. Having resolved to turn his attentions back to the adventure, Ulysses’ thoughts beat with the definitive pounding of a war drum and this is reflected in the poet’s arrangement of the words.

But occasionally, Tennyson throws in a slight variation. In the line, “Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will” for example, the words “made weak” are both stressed, implying the revulsion and disgust the speaker feels about such a subject, almost as though he is spitting them out. When there are two stressed syllables in a meter such as this, it is known as a spondee.

Another variation is a trochee, which refers to swapping around the stressed and unstressed parts of the syllables. In the line, “Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d” for example, “Life to” places the stress very much on the first word of the line, emphasizing its importance. Little variations such as these can help to add a more natural feel to language.

Literary Devices

The poem ‘Ulysses’ contains significant literary devices that make the speaker’s voice forceful and appealing in the poem. For example:

• Metaphor: the speaker of the poem uses “still hearth” and “barren crags” as metaphors. These two metaphors refer to a single idea of immobility and idleness.
• Anticlimax: the line, “That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me”, is an anticlimax. Here, the ideas get arranged in descending order of importance. It heightens the verbal effect of the speaker on the audience.
• Antithesis: seen in the phrases in juxtaposition, “enjoy’d greatly” and “suffer’d greatly”.
• Onomatopoeia: is seen in the line “Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.”
• Epigram: for example, “To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!”, “Old age hath yet his honour and his toil”, and “It is not too late to seek a newer world.”
  
  

Detailed Analysis

Lines 1–15

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.

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,

Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;

Tennyson’s dramatic monologue begins with the speaker, Ulysses discussing his present state of affairs. These opening statements also reflect the character’s mental condition. He might be old but his spirit is young. Moreover, he does not want to pass his time in stately affairs, correcting the “savage race” of his nation. He believes that to stop for a moment equals death. Ulysses wants to continue drinking the wine of life.

The speaker is an embodiment of indomitable courage. There is satisfaction for him while he struggles. His desire to strive beyond the average capacity of other men means he has become famous in nations around the world. He says, “Myself not least, but honour’d of them all”.

Lines 16–32

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

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 hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

In the second section of the first stanza, Ulysses considers his past. Previously, he along with his peers he fought bravely and experienced a great deal. It seems to him that the more he knows the more his hunger for knowledge grows. He can see the “Gleams” of the “untravell’d world” before him. It reminds him of the endless sea of knowledge he is fond of. He finds the idea of stopping and ending his voyage of life an incredibly dull idea when the sea of knowledge constantly calls him to start again.

He is well aware of his age. Yet, in his heart, he knows being old is just a mental state. He compares himself to a “sinking star” that still has its light left. He wants to make use of the light of his soul to seek knowledge that is “Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.”

Lines 33–43

         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

In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

In the second stanza of the poem, Ulysses talks about his duty as a father. After reading this section, it becomes clear, that although he has a spiritual urge to undertake a new adventure, he never forgets about the things he would be leaving behind. He has given over his duties to the hands of his son, Telemachus. He is “Most blameless” and does his “common duties” decently. So, there is no way of judging him as a romantic hero. He had a “Greek zeal” burning inside his “Victorian” embodiment.

Before leaving for the endless and the last voyage of his life, he leaves everything in the right order. He never wants to be an example of an irresponsible king in his nation. The poetic persona wants to be a name that will be a source of courage to the world.

Lines 44–57

         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.

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.

In this section, the speaker directly addresses his comrades. He is about to leave his country with his friends. It is clear from the speaker’s tone that his friends cannot overcome their fear of leaving the country in their old age. But, he does not want to go alone on the journey. Like before, he needs his friends. They were always there whenever he faced difficulties.

As a single unit, with a common heart, they thought together and conquered poor odds together. He reminds them of their present situation and tells them that being old does not bring life to a halt. Movement is life, immobility is death, he suggets. No matter, whether they are young or old. If they choose to remain ashore or stop adventuring and seeking, they are dead already.

Ulysses tells his companions that they all have a long way in front of them. He is unaware of the future. But his heart knows it is never “too late to seek a newer world”. This world is nothing but a metaphorical reference to the vast sea of knowledge.

Lines 58–70

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,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

This section begins with the words “Push off”. The narrator infuses the energy of his soul into his comrades. They have to overcome their manifold fears to continue this journey of life.

The sea is in their blood. Ulysses knows they cannot live without it. He knows the way in front of them could be perilous and there might be threats to their lives. But they had to overcome their fears in the past and they can do it again. In the old days, their vigor shook every kingdom.

They are weak and old due to the natural process of aging. But, they are “strong in will.” At last, the narrator says, they are starting their endless spiritual quest “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

The poem’s final lines are some of the most famous that Tennyson ever wrote. The need “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” fits into the Victorian urge to escape the tedious nature of day-to-day life, to achieve a level of mythical fame reached by the classical heroes, to travel “beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars.”

Tennyson doesn’t want to conform, he wants to challenge himself, and he wants to break new ground before his inevitable death. Just like Ulysses, Tennyson wants to go out adventuring rather than settle for regular life.

Themes

‘Ulysses’ encompasses many important themes. The first and foremost theme of the poem is optimism. The poet presents the spirit of hope by using the character of Ulysses. He was, seemingly, too old to continue his voyage of adventure and quest for knowledge. Still, he was persistent. With an optimistic attitude towards life, he embarked on the sea again.

Another important theme of the poem is brotherhood. He never left his companions even if they were old and struggling. He injected the power inside his heart into theirs and inspired them to strive for a new beginning. Besides, he was never lonely on his voyage. He might have left his family behind, but his true family was his companions. They were his soulmates who “toil’d”, “wrought”, and most importantly “thought” with him.

Symbolism

Tennyson uses different symbols for referring to the greater structure. The poetic persona uses “still hearth” and “barren crags” as a symbol of an idle life. There are two important symbols in the poem. The first one is “sea.”

In the poem, the sea has a different symbolic meaning. It refers to adventure, mystery, and mobility. Whereas the poet uses the symbol of land to signify the opposites. It depicts love, care, relationship, immobility, and idleness.

In the poem, Ulysses belonged to ancient Greece. The poet also belonged to an age when immobility was compared to death. The sea and the land reflected a similar kind of symbolic meaning in Ulysses’ time as well as in the Victorian era.

Character of Ulysses

This poem is about a heroic character named Ulysses. In his current state, he is a king and a soldier, a man approaching retirement with one journey left to make. He’s an old man, one who has seen the world and battled against the worst of it. Most of the time, he won. Nowadays, he is ruling his kingdom of Ithaca, doling out “unequal laws unto a savage race.”

But now, as he looks back over his life spent “always roaming with a hungry heart,” He begins to take stock of what his adventuring has done to him. As he works through his memories and considers his current position, he gets more and more agitated, more and more passionate. By the finale, he has convinced himself that he still has enough fight left in him, that he is not yet ready to become just another “idle king.”

From the domestic memories of the opening, Ulysses convinces himself of the value of battle. Throughout the piece, readers learn that his character will never be truly satisfied unless he is facing off against a foe. He hopes, in earnest, “to strive” and never “to yield.” If he never gave up in battle, why should he give up and settle for a simple home life now?

Historical Context

Tennyson makes use of literary works that came long before him. Both Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey are used, as well as Dante’s Inferno, in which Ulysses makes an appearance. As we learn in Homer’s work, before Ulysses can return home after his epic voyage, he will undertake one last voyage. While readers don’t know exactly what Homer had in mind, readers do know what Dante thought the voyage might entail.

In Dante’s Inferno, Ulysses discovers that he has a strong urge to see the world after growing restless at home in Ithaca. Dante paints him as a tragic figure, one who dies when sailing out too far, perishing while trying to satiate his desire for adventure. Tennyson builds on this, picturing the character at home in Ithaca, having become the “idle king” he loathes, yearning to return to the sea.

By taking the legend, Tennyson explores feelings from his own life. Just after the death of his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam in 1833, Tennyson found himself thrust into the role of Ulysses. Confronted by the death of his friend, Tennyson noticed a sudden urge to drive forwards in life and not settle for the commonplace. As stated in the poem, “Death closes all,” enlightening the poet to the need to make the most of his life before it escapes him.

FAQs

Similar Poetry

The following list contains a few poems about Ulysses or Odysseus. These poems also explore similar themes present in Tennyson’s oft-quoted poem. You can also read more Alfred Lord Tennyson poems.

• ‘Odysseus to Telemachus’ by Joseph Brodsky – This poem is told from the perspective of the epic hero, Odysseus while he is stranded on Circe’s island. Read more Joseph Brodsky poems.
• ‘Ithaka’ by C. P. Cavafy – This poem describes the journey of Odysseus to his homeland and how it can be prolonged for increasing knowledge, wisdom, and wealth. Explore more poems of C.P Cavafy.
• ‘Canto I’ by Ezra Pound – It’s one of the best-known poems of Ezra Pound. This is the start of Pound’s collection of musings on Homer’s Odyssey. Read more Ezra Pound poems.
• ‘Ithaca’ by Carol Ann Duffy – It’s one of the famous poems of Carol Ann Duffy. The poem’s speaker explores the importance of the journey in comparison to homecoming. Explore more Carol Ann Duffy poems.

You can also read about the best life poems and the best-loved poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson.