In a lengthy poem that seems to persist on and on, Lord Tennyson shows Ulysses as a hero who longs for a return to the action and non-stop life of his past. Through the continuity of the sentences, with the heavy use of “and,” commas, and semicolons, instead of complete sentences, Ulysses (the speaker) shows a reverence for the adventure that continues throughout the poem. The pacing, due to the sentence structure, is almost exhausting, but he seems never to tire of it, and instead yearns for that fast-paced life back.
Another aspect of the poem that points towards the wistfulness of Ulysses’ past is the transition from passive vocabulary to a much more active sense in the end of the poem. In the beginning, there are words like “idle,” “still,” “rest,” and “pause” used to convey Ulysses’ desire to move away from the stillness of his current life and return to his adventurous life. However, near the end of the poem, he uses words like “push,” “sail,” “touch,” and “moved” to explain the feeling that he is much closer to a return to such an active lifestyle, framed in a more positive light. Finally, there are a number of references throughout the poem which add to the overall weight of the expression of longing for a return to action. With the use of comparisons to the sun, heaven, and the stars numerous times, he projects his view of the importance of the worthy lifestyle he once lead, and shows that it is almost godly, or universal to follow that passion until “until I die.”
I wonder if the fast-paced feeling of the poem and the overuse of conjunctions, semicolons, and enjambment suggest that the narrator is trying to say something that he can never quite say. He's rambling. The question, then, is what can't he say, and is this motivating his anxiety?
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this poem, the enjambent served not so much to suggest fast pacing, but rather to indicate a continuity of thought. Each line leads to the other with no break or transition, much how streams of consciousness are organized. I interpreted this to mean that Ulysses' soliloquy is internal.
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