Ulysses

Introduction

In October of 1833, Alfred Tennyson learned of the untimely death of his close friend and Arthur Henry Hallam. Hallam's death devastated Tennyson; seventeen years later he wrote a long poem about it called In Memoriam. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, however, he wrote "Ulysses."

You might have heard of Ulysses, or Odysseus, as he is called in Homer's Odyssey, the epic poem that narrates his long (10 years!) journey home from the the Trojan War. According to Homer, once Odysseus made it home he still had to take one more voyage, though that voyage is only mentioned, never made. Dante's Inferno, a much later work about a poet's journey through Hell, actually describes this voyage, though in a slightly different way; in Dante's account, Ulysses never returns home to Ithaca and instead chooses to continue sailing, as he does in Tennyson's poem. But unlike Tennyson, Dante condemns Ulysses for irresponsible adventure-seeking.

Tennyson's poem fuses both Homer and Dante's versions of the story; in the poem, Ulysses has made it home (Homer), but he wants to go sailing around the world again (Dante). The poem is a long monologue spoken by Ulysses detailing how bored he is in Ithaca (an island off the coast of Greece) and how he wants to get as much out of life as he can.

Tennyson's presentation of the Ulysses myth reflects to some degree his own desire to get over Hallam's death and keep living; it wasn't enough for Tennyson to achieve a state of ease and tranquility (like Ulysses did when he got back to Ithaca). He also wanted to keep living life, taking both its ups and downs in stride in the same way as Ulysses. Indeed, Tennyson famously claimed that the poem described in part his own "need of going forward and braving the struggle of life" after his friend's death.

es 56-64

Ulysses Summary

"Ulysses" details Ulysses' intense dissatisfaction and boredom on his island home of Ithaca. The poem is a monologue spoken by him, where he not only expresses his discontent, but also describes his desire to keep sailing. He's getting older and doesn't have a lot of time left, so he wants to get busy living rather than busy dying. The poem concludes with his resolution to "strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

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               http://youtu.be/6dpzjprEpFw 

Lines 1-5

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.

• The poem begins by telling us that a king gains nothing from just sitting around by the fire with his wife and making laws for people who don't even know him.
• The speaker at first seems at to be some kind of observer or impersonal figure who knows a lot about how to be a king, but in line 3 we learn that the king himself, Ulysses, is speaking.
• The phrase "it little profits" is another way of saying, "it is useless" or "it isn't beneficial."
• "Mete" means "to allot" or "measure out." Here it refers to the king's allotment of rewards and punishments to his subjects.
• "Unequal" doesn't mean that the rewards and punishments are unjust or unfair, but rather variable.
• "Match'd" doesn't refer to a tennis match or other sporting event; it means something like "paired" or "partnered with."
• Ulysses' subjects are presented to us as a large group of drones who do nothing but eat and sleep.

Lines 6-11

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea:

• After his moralistic opening, Ulysses tells us more about why sitting around doling out rewards and punishments bores him.
• We learn that he is a restless spirit who doesn't want to take a break from roaming the ocean in search of adventure. He will not let life pass him by.
• 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."
• 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.

 

Lines 11-18

…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 honoured of them all –
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy,
I am a part of all that I have met;

• Ulysses elaborates on the good times and bad times – well, mostly the good times – he's enjoyed during his travels.
• The phrase "I am become a name" means something like "become a household name." Ulysses has become famous because he's traveled to so many places.
• Ulysses tells us that he's visited a variety of different places, with different manners, weather, governments, etc. He portrays himself as a Renaissance traveler of sorts with an insatiable desire ("hungry heart") to see as many places as he can, try as many foods as he can, etc.
• The phrase "myself not least, but honoured of them all" is a little tricky. It means something like "I wasn't treated like the least little thing but was honored by everybody I met."
• Ulysses also describes the time he spent "on the ringing plains of windy Troy," the famous city where the Trojan War took place: you know, that famous war dramatized in the Brad Pitt movie Troy? The "plains" are "ringing" because of the armor clashing together in battle.
• "I am a part of all that I have met" is a strange phrase. Usually we say something like "all the places I have seen are now a part of me." The phrase suggests that Ulysses left parts of himself everywhere he went; this sounds like another way of saying "I don't belong here in Ithaca."

Lines 19-24

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life!

• Ulysses further justifies his desire to keep traveling and living a life of adventure.
• He compares his life or experiences to an arch and describes the "untravelled world" as a place that "gleams" at him through that arch. All he has to do is walk through the arch…
• The first two lines of the passage are very tricky, and we're not entirely sure what they mean. One way to read "Untravelled world" is as a reference to death; it is always looking at him through the "arch" of his experiences, but somehow seems to recede ("margin fades") as he keeps moving.
• You could also think of the "Untravelled world" as an arch. As Ulysses moves, his experiences make an arch covering the arch of the "Untravelled world." The more he travels, the more the margins or edges of that world recede or are covered up.
• Ulysses reiterates how boring it is just sitting around when he could be out exploring the world. It's a lot like that feeling you get when you're just getting into the rhythm of things and have to stop.
• He likens himself to some kind of metallic instrument that is still perfectly useful and shiny but just rusts if nobody uses it, like that ancient bicycle in your garage. If Ulysses weren't a soldier, he might say he's just collecting dust.
• For Ulysses, life is about more than just "breathing" and going through the motions; it's about adventure.

 

Lines 24-32

…Life piled on life
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,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

• Ulysses continues to a radiate a desire for adventure, claiming that even multiple lifetimes wouldn't be enough for him to do all the things he wants.
• At this point, though, he's an old man – a "grey spirit" – near the end of his life, and he wants to make the most of what's left. It's a waste of time for him to hang out in Ithaca for three years when his desire for adventure is still so alive.
• The phrase "but every hour is saved / From that eternal silence, something more, / A bringer of new things" is strange. It means something like "each additional hour that I live, or each hour that I am saved from death, brings me new experiences."
• "Three suns" doesn't mean three days, but rather three years. Ulysses has apparently been wasting his time for quite a while.
• The phrase "follow knowledge like a sinking star" is ambiguous. On the one hand, Ulysses wants to chase after knowledge and try to catch it as it sinks like a star. On the other hand, Ulysses himself could be the "sinking star." That makes sense too; he is a great personality who is moving closer to death (though, in our opinion, he's also kind of a rock star).

Lines 33-38

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle –
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.

• 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 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.

 Lines 39-43

Most blameless is he, centred 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.

• Ulysses tells us more about Telemachus' qualifications; he's a straight shooter all the way, a nice guy.
• "Decent not to fail" means that Telemachus is smart enough not to fail at doing nice things for people and paying the proper respects to the gods.
• "Meet" means "appropriate" or "suitable."
• We're not sure whether "when I am gone" means that Ulysses is planning on going back to sea for some more adventures, or if he's thinking about his own death.

Lines 44-50

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, 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;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

• 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.

 

Lines 51-56

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. 

• 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.
• The Trojan War wasn't a war between men and gods, but occasionally the gods would come down and fight with either the Greeks or the Trojans.
• "Ere" is an old poetic word that means "before," as in "I will come ere nightfall."
• Ulysses observes the sunset and the arrival of night, but it seems like he's thinking about his own death as well. What's with the moaning? It reminds us of ghosts or people mourning a death.
• "Lights begin to twinkle from the rocks" is an elegant way of saying the stars are coming out.

 

 

 

 

Lines 56-64

 

…Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
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.

• 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.
• 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.

 

Lines 65-70

Tho' 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.

• Ulysses yet again tells us that even though he and his sailors are old and don't have a lot of gas left in the tank, there's enough left to go a little farther.
• "Abides" is a word that means "remains."
• These guys are a team with one heartbeat. They're old and broken, but they still have the will to seek out and face challenges without giving up. They can't bench-press 200 pounds anymore, but that won't stop them from trying anyway.
• The phrase "strong in will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not yield" means something like "we're strong because of our will to strive" or "our will to strive is strong."

 

 

Symbol Analysis

Greek Mythology

Because the poem is spoken by a famous Greek hero it's no surprise that references to Greek mythology abound. Ulysses refers several times to the Trojan War and mentions several mythological landmarks in order to convey just how hungry he is for new adventures. More specifically, Ulysses' references to Greek mythology remind us of his heroic past while also giving us a sense of the (very large) scope of his future ambitions.

• Lines 16-17: Ulysses describes how he enjoyed fighting on the "plains" of Troy, an ancient city located in what is now Northwestern Turkey.
• Line 33: Ulysses introduces us to his son, Telémakhos, a figure who appears in Homer's Odyssey, an epic poem that describes Ulysses' (Odysseus') long journey home.
• Line 53: Ulysses refers to himself and his fellow mariners as men that "strove with Gods." During the Trojan War, the gods – Athena, Ares, Venus, etc. – frequently took part in battle.
• Lines 63-4: Ulysses suggests that if he and his friends die, they might visit the "Happy Isles," a sort of Elysium for heroes and others who lived virtuous lives. He implies that Achilles – the greatest of the Greek heroes who fought at Troy – resides there.

 

Traveling and Sailing

Ulysses has done a lot of traveling; it took him ten years to get home from Troy, which means he's had an entire decade to visit a whole lot of places. Apparently, those ten years weren't enough because all he talks about is leaving home again. It's not entirely clear whether Ulysses wants to visit any specific place or if he just wants to travel for its own sake. Maybe he just likes the smell of the ocean air. Either way, he wants to get out of Dodge.

• Line 6: Ulysses explains that he can't stop traveling because he wants to get the most out of life.
• Lines 9-11: Ulysses describes storms at as resulting from the Hyades "vexing the sea." "Vex" means to upset, stir up, trouble; attributing human actions to a non-living thing (the Hyades) is called personification.
• Lines 12-15: Ulysses tells us that he's visited a lot of different places with different governments, people, foods, and the like. He portrays himself as some kind of predatory animal, "roaming with a hungry heart." Because he doesn't say "I was like a lion" or "I roamed just as a lion might," this is a metaphor.
• Lines 19-21: Ulysses compares life to an arch – that's a metaphor again – and explains that the "untravelled world" (death; places he hasn't experienced) gleams through it. The "untravelled world" is likened to some kind of planet or luminous world, which means this is also a metaphor.
• Lines 44-45: Ulysses directs our attention to the "port," where the mariners are preparing the ship. The ship can't "puff" its own sail; the wind is probably doing it. Attributing human characteristics to non-living objects is personification.
• Line 46: Ulysses refers to his "mariners" as "souls." The "soul" is part of the body; using a part (the soul) to stand in for the whole (the mariners) is called synecdoche.
• Lines 56-7: Ulysses tells his companions that even though they're old, they still have time to visit places they haven't already seen. Ulysses probably doesn't have any specific place in mind so "a newer world" is standing in for a host of potential places he might visit; this is another example of synecdoche.
• Lines 58-9: Ulysses exhorts his mariners to set sail; the phrase "smite / the sounding furrows" compares the act of rowing to hitting or striking something; hitting something that makes a sound is here a metaphor for rowing.
• Lines 60-61: Ulysses says he intends to sail "beyond the sunset," which is another way of saying he intends to sail beyond the known universe. "Beyond the sunset" is a metaphor.

Eating and Drinking

As the king of Ithaca, Ulysses doesn't have a lot do besides eat and sleep and act as a judge every once and a while. In fact, he's not too happy about just sitting around eating and drinking all day. He's hungry, sure, but for something else. He sees the people who just sit around eating food and sleeping – his subjects – as more like animals than people. This is partly why Ulysses has lost his appetite for ease, tranquility, and regular food.

• Line 5: Ulysses refers to his subjects as a "savage race," who do nothing but eat and sleep, which makes them more like brutes or "savages," than civilized people.
• Lines 6-7: Ulysses says he will "drink / Life to the lees," an old version of "live life to the fullest." Living life is here compared to drinking a bottle of something; because "like" or "as" do not appear, it's a metaphor, not a simile.
• Line 12: Ulysses explains that he's seen so many places because he's like a predatory animal with a "hungry heart." He tacitly compares himself to a lion or tiger, which makes this a metaphor.
• Line 16: Ulysses refers to his enjoyment of battle as a kind of consumption, a "drinking" of "delight." Enjoying the delight of battle is compared to the drinking of some kind of beverage, which means this is a metaphor.

 

Stars

Before the compass was invented, sailors used the stars to guide them. Ulysses has done a lot of sailing, so it's no surprise that stars come up several times in the poem. The stars in this poem, however, are always doing more than looking pretty; they have the power to affect things on earth, and they're also handy as metaphors for Ulysses' experiences and desires.

• Lines 10-11: Ulysses describes how the "rainy Hyades," a group of stars in the constellation Taurus, caused storms at sea. Of course, the stars didn't literally "vex" the sea; Ulysses gives a human attribute to a non-human object, which is called personification.
• Line 20: Ulysses compares the "untravelled world" to a gleaming object. Though he doesn't call it a star, the fact that it's compared to some kind of celestial object "gleaming" out in space kind of makes one think of a star. Oh, and since the "untravelled world" isn't really a star, the gleaming object or planet is a metaphor for that world.
• Line 29: Ulysses says it would be "vile" if he were to spend three years hoarding supplies and basically doing nothing. He says "three suns" (the sun is technically a star), by which he presumably means three complete revolutions of the earth around the sun.
• Line 31: Ulysses here refers to a "sinking star," only it's not clear if that star is the knowledge he's seeking, or himself. Either way, he says "like a sinking star," which means this is a simile.
• Line 54-5: Ulysses describes the onset of night and the appearance of the stars. Here, the description of night doubles as Ulysses' reflection on his own approaching "night," his own death. The end of a day is a metaphor for death in this passage.
• Lines 60-1: Ulysses describes how the stars rest in a body of water that the Greeks believed surrounded the earth. He mentions the "baths" of the stars in order to convey how far beyond the known world he wants to travel.

 

Animals

There are a lot of sly references to animals in this poem, and we're not talking about Ulysses' poodle either. The residents of Ithaca are described as uncultivated people that just eat and sleep and need to be tamed like a bunch of wild animals. Ulysses doesn't want to end up like them, which he sees as a very real possibility if he stays in Ithaca. He wants to be a different kind of animal, a predatory one that wanders around, consuming different places as if they were exotic prey.

• Line 5: Ulysses describes his subjects like animals; they don't eat, they "feed" like pigs out of a trough. Oh, and they "hoard" too, as if they were getting ready to hibernate. Some unspecified animal is here a metaphor for the citizens of Ithaca.
• Line 12: Ulysses compares himself to a lion or tiger, "roaming" the seas with a "hungry heart." One of those animals, or a similar animal, is a metaphor for Ulysses.
• Lines 28-9: Ulysses remarks that if he stays in Ithaca he'll end up just like his subjects, sitting around "storing and hoarding" things as if preparing for hibernation and an unproductive life. Again, some unspecified animal is here a metaphor for Ulysses.
• Lines 37-8: Here again some kind of animal is a metaphor for the people of Ithaca. They are "rugged" – almost like a stallion that hasn't learned how to wear a saddle yet – and have to be "subdued." Some unspecified, savage animal is here a metaphor for the citizens of Ithaca.

 

Ulysses : Themes

 

Theme of Dissatisfaction

Ulysses is really bored. He can't stand just sitting around the house with his wife all day, eating and sleeping and settling disputes every once in a while. It would be like if you spent the entire summer traveling around the world and then had to go to your corner office where all you had to do was count your money and live in luxury. Yeah sure, it'd be nice, but wouldn't you get a craving for adventure every once in a while? After visiting all kinds of strange places, Ulysses has to go back to Ithaca where, since he's the king, he doesn't really have to do a whole lot. He's still in good physical shape, and he can't stand it that he doesn't get to put that body to use.

Theme of Perseverance

Ulysses is an untamed spirit, and nothing is going to stop him; he's got a disease, and the only cure is to keep traveling, to keep moving on. It's not that his life in Ithaca isn't good; there's a voice inside his head that tells him his life is synonymous with perseverance, and that he should continue to see as many places as he can before he dies so he can get the most out of life. He's determined to persevere against the lures of domestic tranquility, even if it kills him.

Theme of Mortality

The strong sense of urgency that Ulysses radiates stems largely from his own consciousness of death; it seems like every time he talks about going back to sea he mentions the fact that he might die soon, or die out there. Ulysses knows that death is stalking him, and he wants to try and cheat it for as long as he can. In other words, he wants to try to steal as many moments as he can before the curtain drops. And he thinks by traveling more he can somehow forestall death, can make the "eternal silence" wait just a bit longer for him.

Theme of Old Age

In a lot of ways, Ulysses resembles a retiree, someone who's had a long, eventful life and has been forced to hang it up just a bit too soon. Death isn't just stalking him because that's what death does; it's stalking him because he's old! Ulysses spent twenty years away from home, and even if he left home at the age of 25, that would still make him 45. That's like 70 if you're living in 1200 B.C.! And that's one of the reasons why he's in such a hurry to get out of Ithaca; he doesn't want to spend his few remaining years sitting around watching his son take over the family business. He'd rather say his goodbyes now and see what happens.

  

Theme of Exploration

Ulysses is like that guy you once knew who was totally happy taking whatever he could fit in his backpack and setting off for Europe, or Africa, or any other sprawling land mass. On one of those trips he got lost, was presumed dead, but later made it back home; now he's on his way out the door again because he's not done looking for new places. Ulysses knows he might die, but the search, the process of exploring, satisfies him in ways that nothing else can.