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Ulysses
by Alfred Tennyson
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Greek name
Latin name
Odysseus or Ulysses
is the hero of Homer's
epic poem, “The Odyssey.”
He took 10 years to
get home from
the Trojan War!
He is the:
king of Ithaca,
husband of Penelope,
father of Telemachus,
Ulysses is a great adventurer
known for his cunning
and resourcefulness.
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In Tennyson’s poem about
Ulysses the hero is on the island of Ithaca
In retirement Ulysses
contemplates one final voyage…
It’s written in the first person
It’s a dramatic monologue
Ulysses is speaking
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In the first section Ulysses reflects on his life
Talking about himself
Ulysses
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Suggests
empty
lack of
Give out
action
The islanders
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.
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They don’t recognise his achievements
In the second section Ulysses looks back
all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone;
Repeated for emphasis - Ulysses
on shore
is a man of extremes both
Stars that bring rain
At sea and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea:
troubled
The epic language
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emphasises the scale of what he has done
Ulysses thinks about the exciting times
from his life
I am become a name;
Much have I
For always roaming seen and known;
It is these times
that he remembers
cities of men
and manners,
climates, councils,
governments
Where he was honoured
drunk delight of battle with my peers; He enjoyed war
Far on the ringing plains
of windy Troy.
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Ulysses' past experience makes him want more
adventure
Sounds enticing
experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world
Travel and action are
better than standing still
Contrasts with “gleams”
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
Comparing himself
to a sword
unpolished
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Ulysses knows that he has not much time left
He wants..
Links the idea of
travel and knowledge
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
The journey which no
one has yet travelled
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In the next section he says he will leave
his kingdom to his son Telemachus
Telemachus has the job of
civilizing the people of Ithaca
Well-loved of me
to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Ulysses want
no part of this
He works his work, I mine.
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Ulysses gets set for his last voyage
There gloom the dark broad seas.
He speaks to
How does this line make
his mariners
the voyage seem dangerous?
you and I are old;
He sees himself and
his men as heroes
He knows that
death is close
But before it arrives
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
To be accomplished
http://www.marrasouk.comon the voyage
He’s ready to leave
To sail beyond
Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
the sunset,
To the edge
of the known
Has an air
and the baths
world
of finality
Of all the western stars, until I die.
Beyond the
straits of Gibraltar
He‘s no desire to return
from this voyage
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Perhaps he
wanted to be
reunited with Ulysses
him?
thinks of paradise
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
The companion of
Ulysses at Troy
“about the need of going forward
and braving the struggle of life"
Tennyson was 24 when he wrote this
poem, shortly after the death
of his friend Arthur Hallam
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In the final section Ulysses realises he is old but
he still wants to live life
Most of his life is over
remains
Tho' much is taken, much abides
He’s realistic about
his limitations
We are not now that strength
But he won’t be beaten
by what lies ahead
but strong in will
Is Ulysses trying to
to strive, to seek,
motivate himself
to find, and not to yield
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