ULYSSES BY ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

ULYSSES BY ALFRED LORD TENNNYSON

 

 

                    It little profits that on idle king

                              By this still earth, among these barren crags

                              Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dote

                              Unequal laws unto a savage race

                  5          That hoards, and sleeps, and feed, and know not me,

                              I cannot rest from travels: I will drink

                              Life to the less: All times I have enjoyed

                              Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those

                              That loved me, and alone: on shore, and when

                  10       Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

                              Vexed 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, climate, councils, government,

                  15       Myself not least, but honored of them all;

                              And drink delight of battle with my peers,

                              I am a part of all that I have met;

                              Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy,

                              Yet all experience is an arch where-thro

                  20       Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades

                              For ever and when I move

                              How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

                              To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!

                              As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life

                  25       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.

                  30       And this grey spirit yearning in desire

                              To 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 scepter and the isle –

                              Well love of me discerning to fulfil

                              This labor, by slow prudence to make mild

                              A rugged people, and through soft degrees

                              Subdue them to the useful and the good

                              Most blameless is he, centered 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.

                              There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sails:

                        45       There gloom the dark broad seas; my mariners.

                                    Souls that have toiled 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;

                        50       Old age hath yet his honor and his boil,

                                    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.

                                    It’s not too late to seek a newer world.

                                    Push off, and sitting well in order smite

                                    The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

                        60       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

                        65       Through much is taken, much abides; and though

                                    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.

CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

 

The poet moves in three stages:

(i)                The narration of his past exploits,

(ii)              His reflection on those exploits vis-à-vis his present situation which he feels holds no attraction or excitement and so needed to be improved upon

(iii)            His determination to satisfy his urge for travels even at the peril of his life.

 

The poem begins with the speaker, Ulysses declaring his displeasure with domestic activities which he considered drab and unexcited. In the same vein, Ulysses was dissatisfied with the social conditions of the people and so longed to undertake a fresh adventure.

 

In the second journey it had not been all peace and tranquility became the hero and his men had at times engaged in fierce battles against the warriors they encounter in the battle fields of Troy.

 

In line 18, Ulysses comments on the value of these extensive travels:”he felt that his life had been adequately enriched and compensated by these travels. He had gained much by traveling far and wide. But even at that, every new experience stimulated interest for yet another. Any new experience served as a stepping stone to another experience, with the result that each time Ulysses discovered a new place and thought it was the end, another vast area of land sprawled before him and the edge of the sky continued to recede as he moved forward.

 

In spite of difficulties, Ulysses would not like to spare any thought on anything that would suggest the termination of this journey. He contended that one untraveled life was like a mental which was left to rust out of disuse or which had lost its color and texture as a result of neglect.

 

From line 24, Ulysses stated that there was more to life than just breathing in and out. He seemed to be saying man should be carefully watched to ensure that whatever the hour brought in should be handled according to the demand of the hour. It is for this reason that Ulysses could not bring himself to reconcile the fact that he could stay for so long after his first journey doing nothing.

 

Even though Ulysses realized that he is growing old he was in no way deterred in his determination to go in, in search of knowledge from “beyond the utmost bound of human thought.”

 

From line 33, Ulysses turned to what he considered should be the “political responsibilities of a king” and “the domestic duty of a father.”As he left home, there were certain responsibilities which he expected his son “Telemachus to carry out. He extolled the virtues of “prudence” as a necessary ingredient of good leadership. More so when one was faced with difficult and discerning public such as his rugged people. He recognized that in dealing with such people, one must do so with circumspect of one did not want to come to grief.

 

In other words, in dealing with the subjects, force was not recommended persuasion instead of coercion should be adopted. After his son must have handle the situation the way advocated by Ulysses, he was enjoined also not to neglect his father’s religious obligations.

 

From line 50 – 53, the realities of old age and death stare Ulysses in the face. Old age, Ulysses said, had its own virtues. The honor derived from old age was not without a corresponding responsibility on the part of the aged. The ultimate is death but before death one had to leave “some footsteps on the sands of time.”Some word of noble note may have to be done”.

 

From line 54, a number of impediments seemed to be rearing their heads; these were the things that would have discouraged Ulysses and his men. They include “the lights” twinkling “from the rocks “, night the moon the awful and disturbing cries from the “deep” (line 55). Realizing that these disquieting things were capable of dampening the determination of his marines, Ulysses urged them into action.  

 

Stating once again his unflinching determination to achieve his objective. Ulysses urged his men to brace up to the occasion since he had no intention to abandon his task, no matter the odds ahead.

 

Stating that he was not unmindful of possible dangers on their way. Ulysses affirmed that the chances were that the marines would overcome these difficulties and land safely at the “Happy isles. “Or even “see the Great Achilles, whom we know”.

 

Concluding, Ulysses said that even though he and his men had been wearied by these exploits, they still had a store of energy to enable them to pull through. Ulysses agrees that even though as a result of old age, the marines might no longer be as active as in the past. They should approach the task with the same effectiveness and efficiency, since, since they still had something reasonable to offer.

 

Even though Ulysses realized that he and his men had some weakened by “time and fate”, he had a solid conviction that their will was ever strong “to strive, to see, to find and not to yield.”

POETIC DEVICES

 

Diction: Some of the words and phrases belonging to the past include:

(i)                Mete and dote (line 3) meaning, to measure out something to somebody; to give.

(ii)              “Hoard” (line 5) meaning hide.

(iii)            “Hyades” (line 10). In Greek mythology, this is a cluster of seven stars supposed by the ancient to indicate the approach of rainy weather when they rose with sun.

(iv)            “Peers” (line 16) equals; age mates; contemporaries.

(v)              “Hath” – has

(vi)            “Ere” – before

(vii)          “The Happy isles”, (line 63) – The Elysian field or Greek paradise.

(viii)        “Achilles” (line 64) – Another Greek prince, the hero of the “Iliad”, who was killed at the siege of Troy.

 

Imagery: the images in this poem are of two main categories – descriptive and symbolic.  “The port”, “the sea”, are descriptive image, “light” is a symbolic image which stands for the light that would throw in bright beam on the path of the voyager. “The twinkling light”, “wanting day” and “climbing moon” (line 53 – 56) are symbols night and the need to make hay while the sun shines.     

FIGURE OF SPEECH

 

(i)                Metaphor: Line 6 – 7 “I will drink life to the less”. This means, l will live life to the fullest or to the end. Line 2, “to trust unburnish’d”.

(ii)             Metonymy: Line 11, “I am become a name”. This means, I have become famous, line 49, “free hearts, free foreheads”.

(iii)            Personification: Line 55, “… slow moon climbs”

(iv)            Alliteration: Line 7, “Life…lees” , line 32, “Beyond ….bound…..”

(v)              Assonance: Line 17, “ Far on the ringing planes of windy Troy”, ”Beyond the utmost bound of human thought”.

(vi)            Parallelism: Lines 22 -23, “How dull it is to pause, to make an end”, “To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!”

(vii)          Antithesis: Line 62 – 63, “It may be that gulls will wash us down, it may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.  

THEME

 

(i)                 The ideals which a king should pursue in order to rule effectively

(ii)              The three inevitable factors in the life an adventurer – time , ageing and death

(iii)            The fascinations and excitement of a life of adventure

(iv)            The Victorian quest for adventures and the stuff of man to carry it through.

MOOD

There is an indication of happy mood signifying achievement, success, attainment and comradeship.