26 pages • 52 minutes read
Alfred, Lord TennysonUlysses
Alfred, Lord TennysonFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1842A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Heroism and Restlessness
Ulysses is the famous hero of Homer’s Odyssey, and any poem about Ulysses must deal with the nature of his heroism. The Ulysses we meet in Tennyson’s poem is an extremely restless man. Ulysses has only been home for “three suns,” or three years, and he is “yearning in desire / To follow knowledge like a sinking star, / Beyond the utmost bound of human thought” (Lines 30-32). It’s not just that Ulysses is a hero and he’s restless; at several points in the poem his heroism is equated with his restlessness. As Ulysses says, “I am become a name / For always roaming with a hungry heart” (Lines 11-12). In other words, his name and renown and his “roaming” are entwined. Moreover, Ulysses concludes,
. . . 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 (Lines 67-70).
Here, having a “heroic” spirit is equated with the “will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (Lines 69-70). Therefore, Ulysses equates being a hero with being restless.
Contrasting Leadership
Ulysses is a famous leader. He is known worldwide “[f]or always roaming with a hungry heart” (Line 12). He is also charismatic. Ulysses is attempting to talk a crew of old men into a trip they will never return from, and the metrical thrust of the final line suggests this crew will follow him. Yet despite his immense fame and obvious charisma, Ulysses is not the perfect leader. The practical day-to-day work of running a kingdom bores Ulysses. He sees “little profits” in the work of upholding the kingdom’s laws (Line 1). As Ulysses says,
I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me (Lines 3-5).
A great leader would attempt to make the laws more equal, but Ulysses just loses interest and wants to leave.
Telemachus, on the other hand, is not as famous as his father, but he is very good at doing the day-to-day work of running a kingdom. Telemachus is a patient and just ruler,
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 (Lines 35-38).
In short, Telemachus is everything his father isn’t. Ulysses acknowledges the differences between himself and his son when he says, “He works his work, I mine” (Line 43). Ulysses and Telemachus are presented as two very different types of leaders, and the contrast between them is an important theme of the poem.
Stasis and Action
The first (and longest) stanza of “Ulysses” is characterized by a tension between stasis and action. In the opening lines, Ulysses describes his life back home in Ithaca as static: Ulysses says he is “idle” and his surroundings are “still,” “barren,” and “aged” (Lines 1-3). Ulysses then rhapsodizes about the joys of traveling and discovering new things (Lines 6-21). “[T]he untravell’d world,” Ulysses says, “[g]leams” and entices him “[f]or ever and forever when I move” (Lines 20-21). Eventually, however, Ulysses returns to how boring and static his life is in Ithaca:
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 (Lines 22-26).
Ulysses concludes the stanza by stating his desire to travel again and “follow knowledge like a sinking star” (Line 31). Thus, the first stanza oscillates between Ulysses contemplating stasis, then action, then stasis again, then action again. It’s as if these themes are in a tug-of-war.
The second stanza does not oscillate the way the first stanza did, but it continues to present the reader with a tension between stasis and action. In the second stanza, this tension exists in the contrast between Ulysses and his son. Telemachus’s leadership style is associated with stasis, Ulysses’ with action. Telemachus will stay put in Ithaca; Ulysses will travel. Telemachus’s leadership is “slow” and works “thro’ soft degrees” (Lines 36 and 37), Ulysses is restless and forceful.
Interestingly, this tension between stasis and action completely evaporates in the final stanza, which is only concerned with action. Ulysses has made up his mind to travel again and has announced his decision to leave Telemachus in charge. The third stanza has only one purpose for Ulysses: to convince his mariners to go with him. The final stanza focuses on action to inspire the mariners “[t]o strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (Line 70). This resolute focus on action in the final stanza is as important as the tension between stasis and action in the first and second stanzas.
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By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
