NOTES ON ULYSSES

ULYSSES – by Alfred Tennyson

In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was
the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22
January 1901.
Various liberalising political reforms took place in the UK including expanding the
electoral franchise. The Great Famine caused mass death in Ireland early in the
period. The British Empire expanded during this period and was the predominant
power in the world.
Victorian society valued a high standard of personal conduct which reflected across
all sections of society. The emphasis on morality gave impetus to social reform but
also placed restrictions on the liberty of certain groups. Prosperity rose during the
period though debilitating undernutrition continued to exist. Literacy and childhood
education became near universal in Great Britain for the first time. Whilst some
attempts were made to improve living conditions, slum housing and disease
remained a severe problem.
The period saw significant scientific and technological development. Britain was
advanced in industry and engineering in particular, but somewhat undeveloped in art
and education. The population of Great Britain increased rapidly, whilst the
population of Ireland fell sharply.
Tennyson(1806 - is a representative poet of the melody, wisdom, passion and
harmony). He was always in touch with the national feeling, political
movements and scientific research of his time. He gives expression of the
Scientific Sprit of the age.
Background:
"Ulysses" is a poem in blank verse by the Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(1809–1892),, written in 1833 and published in 1842 in his well-received second
volume of poetry. An oft-quoted poem, it is a popular example of the dramatic
monologue.
Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines. It has a conventional meter that is
used for verse drama and long narrative poems. It is often used in descriptive and
reflective poems and dramatic monologues — the poems in which a single character
delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
The character of Ulysses - in Greek, called Odysseus, has been explored widely in
literature. The adventures of Odysseus were first recorded in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey (c. 800–700 BC), and Tennyson draws on Homer's narrative in the poem.
For much of this poem's history, readers viewed Ulysses as resolute and heroic,
admiring him for his determination "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield". The
view that Tennyson intended a heroic character is supported by his statements about
the poem, and by the events in his life—the death of his closest friend— Arthur
Hallam, that prompted him to write it.

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The central theme of “Ulysses” is that there is a search for adventure, experience
and meaning which makes life worth living. Tennyson used Ulysses as the old
adventurer, unwilling to accept the settling of old age, longing for one more quest.
Tennyson also wrote this in memory of his friend Arthur Hallam. (Tennyson’s
personal past, too, figures prominently in his work. The sudden death of his closest
friend Arthur Henry Hallam when Tennyson was just 24 dealt a great emotional blow
to the young poet, who spent the next ten years writing over a hundred poems
dedicated to his departed friend, later collected and published as “In Memoriam”
in 1850.)

In the twentieth century, some new interpretations of "Ulysses" highlighted potential

ironies in the poem. They argued, for example, that Ulysses wishes to selfishly
abandon his kingdom and family, and they questioned more positive assessments of
Ulysses' character by demonstrating how he resembles flawed protagonists in earlier
literature.

EXPLANATION POINTERS :

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;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
Ulysses has returned to his kingdom, Ithaca, having made a long journey home after
fighting in the Trojan War. Confronted again by domestic life, Ulysses expresses his
lack of contentment, including his indifference toward the "savage race" (line 4) whom
he governs. Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying home

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“by this still hearth” with his old wife, doling out rewards and punishments for the
unnamed masses who live in his kingdom.
He doesn’t feel at home on Ithaca (describing himself as an ‘idle king’ surrounded by
‘barren crags’, with ‘an aged wife’ next to him, ruling over a people who ‘know not
me’), so his determination to sail off beyond the sunset may owe more to his inability
to adapt to ordinary life than to his sincere belief that he will be able to go on striving,
seeking, and finding forever.
Ulysses expresses frustration at how dull and pointless his life now seems as king of
Ithaca, trapped at home on the rocky island of Ithaca. His wife is old, and he must
spend his time enforcing imperfect laws as he attempts to govern people he
considers stupid and uncivilized.
The word "lees" originally referred to the sediment accumulated at the bottom of a
bottle of wine; to "drink life to the lees" means to drink to the very last drop.
Nowadays we might say something like "live life to the fullest."
He still yearns to travel the world like he used to do. As long as he's alive,
he doesn't want to stop doing the things that, in his eyes, make life worth
living. He found joy, he claims, in every moment he spent traveling, even at
the times when he was suffering. He found joy both when he was with his
faithful crew members and when he was by himself; both when he was on
land and when he was sailing the sea through rainstorms
∙ Ulysses tells us that he has had a lot of good times and a lot of bad times,
sometimes with his best friends, and sometimes alone, both on dry land and
while sailing through potentially destructive storms.
∙ "Scudding drifts" are pounding showers of rain that one might encounter at
sea during a storm or while crab fishing off the coast of Alaska.
∙ The "Hyades" are a group of stars in the constellation Taurus often associated
with rain; their rising in the sky generally coincides with the rainy season. Here
they are presented as agitators of the ocean.

A star that sinks below the horizon is also something that can be followed, and this
one suggests excitement and adventure and huge rewards. Think "second star on
the left, and carry on til morning!", or the Wise Men's following of the Star in the East.
But ambiguously, it also suggests fruitlessness: you can go around the earth any
number of times and you'll never reach that star!
Either way, it seems to say that the pursuit of all knowledge is ultimately unattainable,
for "Beyond the utmost bound of human thought" is somewhere that cannot ever be
reached by a human, a boundary forever receding.
Ulysses introduces us to his son and heir, Telemachus, who seems like the right guy
to take over the job of King of Ithaca. He's smart, and he knows how to make his
people do things without being too harsh about it. A "Sceptre" is a ceremonial staff
that symbolizes authority. Ulysses means something like "I leave him in charge."
When compared with Ulysses, Telemachus seems a lot less restless. He has "slow
prudence," meaning he's patient and willing to make the best decision for the people
of Ithaca without being too hasty. The people of Ithaca are "rugged," which means

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that they're a little uncivilized and uncultured. They're like country-bumpkins with a
little bit of an attitude. That's why they need to be reigned in ("subdued," made
"mild") and put to good use. "Soft degrees" implies that Telemachus will civilize the
citizens of Ithaca in stages and in a nice way; it's kingship as constructive criticism.
Last paragraph:
Ulysses shifts our attention from his son to the port of Ithaca, where he tells us a ship
is preparing to set sail. Looks like he's planning on skipping town after all, and with
his old friends as well.
"Gloom" is usually a noun but here it's a verb that means "appearing dark" or
"scowling."
"Thunder and sunshine" is used here to mean something like "good times and bad
times." They have gladly ("with a frolic welcome") gone through thick and thin for
Ulysses.
The phrase "opposed / Free hearts, free foreheads" is a little tricky. Ulysses means
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 ("free foreheads"). While at first it
seems as though Ulysses has just been musing to himself, it turns out he's speaking
to someone. We don't know whom he's talking to, but the other person is an old
man.
Speaking of old age, Ulysses suggests that even though old people are respected,
they also have responsibilities.
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. Moans round with many voices.
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. ... It reminds us of ghosts or people mourning a death.
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the
Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta.
The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been
narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. For
most ancient Greeks, indeed, the Trojan War was much more than a myth. It was an
epoch
defining moment in their distant past.
"Lights begin to twinkle from the rocks" is an elegant way of saying the stars
are coming out.

It turns out that Ulysses is addressing his friends, at least during this part of the
poem. He tells them what he's been telling us all along: it's never too late to go in
search of new lands.
Here a "furrow" refers to the track or mark made in the water by the ship. He tells his
sailors to "smite" or strike it, most likely with oars.
"Purpose" can mean two different things; it can mean either "destiny," as in "sailing is
my purpose in life," or it can mean "intention," as in "I intend to sail as far as I can."
The "baths / Of all the western stars" isn't a place where the stars go to bathe
themselves. It refers to the outer ocean or river that the Greeks believed surrounded
the (flat) earth; they thought the stars descended into it.
To sail beyond the "baths" means Ulysses wants to sail really, really far away –
beyond the horizon of the known universe – until he dies.
The "happy isles" refers to the Islands of the Blessed, a place where big-time Greek
heroes like Achilles enjoyed perpetual summer after they died. We might say
Heaven.

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Ulysses realizes that he and his companions might die, but he's OK with that. If they
die, they might even get to go to the "Happy Isles" and visit their old pal Achilles. The
poem’s final lines are the most famous. 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.

Go through these websites for more detailed understanding and analysis

https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/alfred-lord-tennyson/ulysses
https://literarydevices.net/ulysses/