Blog 2 Response

Alfred Tennyson's poem 'Ulysses' is the 'what now' part that comes after the violent triumph at the end of The Odyssey. Now Ulysses, or Odysseus, is bored at home in Ithaca, feeling like he is rotting away the remaining days of his existence. Tennyson writes that Ulysses must '...mete and dole unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me'. The fact that Tennyson repeats 'and' three times, and uses words like 'mete' and 'dole' that are associated with tedious tasks, show that Ulysses is intensely frustrated with his monotonous daily existence. The iambic pentameter of the poem  is less of a heartbeat here than the simple and plain rhythm of Ulysses' life in Ithaca. The rhythm makes us feel how Ulysses' last days are blending together into one indistinguishable pattern of existence. Ulysses is even dissatisfied with his family life: he complains of his 'aged wife', and he looks down on his son Telemachus. He associates words and phrases with Telemachus like 'labour', 'slow prudence', 'mild', 'subdue', 'common' and 'decent'. Essentially, Telemachus is fit to be the docile king, a job Ulysses feels he cannot continue doing.

However, this poem is not truly about Ulysses. Would home life really bore Ulysses after he spent a year with Circe and then seven long years vegetating on Kalypso's island, losing his mind? Would Ulysses complain about his aged wife when willingly left the beautiful Kalypso for home? It seems that the true subject of this poem is Tennyson himself. Tennyson's other poetry, including the famous poem 'Crossing the Bar' is full of the same regret that 'Ulysses' contains. In 'Crossing the Bar', Tennyson shows his restless soul, constantly longing for the final voyage, knowing that death will meet him on that voyage, causing him to cross the bar.  In 'Ulysses', he wants to 'Touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles'. Ulysses knows his days are coming to an end, and despite that, he knows and deeply regrets that he cannot be content. He sets off once more in his restlessness to find a new world, and this time, tired of existence, perhaps the new world is death.