Tennyson's "Ulysses"

"Ulysses" is a poem in blank verse, the last of the classical poems in Tennyson's volume of 1842.The poem in the form of a dramatic monologue is in iambic pentameter (often interrupted by spondees).According to Victorian scholar Linda Hughes, the emotional gulf between the state of his domestic affairs and the loss of his special friendship informs the reading of "Ulysses"-particularly its treatment of domesticity.

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Critics point out two sources for Tennyson's "Ulysses". Mr.Church Collins was the first to point out that "The germ, the spirit and the sentiment of the poem are from the 26^th Canto of Dante's "Inferno", where Dante meets Ulysses and Diomed among the Counsellers of evil in the eighth circle of hell and listens to the account given of his last voyage. Mr .Wheeler indicates another passage from "Homer's" which may have offered the skeleton of the poem to Tennyson. when Ulysses took leave of Circe, the divine enchantress advised him to sail to the gates of Hades(Hell),summon the spirit of the dead prophet of Thebes, Teiresias and listen to his prophecy and instruction, which aws "go thy way.... and from the sea shall thine own death come..."

The poet begins projecting himself as "an idle king" analyzing the moribund existence he dwells in. He compares it to a "still hearth",a fireplace that no longer carries the flame, but only the ashes. These "barren crags" refer to the island of Ithaca in Ulysses' kingdom: a lime-stone ridge seventeen miles long and four miles broad at its widest, noted for its ruggedness and barrenness, and unhealthy for cultivation. Homer in his Odyssey too portrays the island as "craggy". The speaker mentions that he is "matched" with an aged wife. Penelope, who was fifty during the time, and did not possess the passion and spirit of adventure that Ulysses still held. The phrase 'mete and 'dole' implies -to measure and deals out in small qualities. It is actually a despicable metaphor from a grocer that foregrounds the triviality of the reality that Ulysses thrives in."Mete" may signify the weighing of the decisions mentally. Ulysses considers himself superior to a semi-civilized race whose hallmark is complacency. He criticizes the "unequal laws" that did not treat the various strata of society on an equal footing. Mr.Wheeler mentions with regard to this phrase :"In early time, there were no laws of general application; each case was decided on its own merits' ......with advancing civilization people began to see the necessity for "equal laws", or rather hard and fast rules to which all must conform.....But as the lawyers say ,hard cases make bad law."

The people of Ithaca are likened to a "savage race" that just perform the basic functions of subsistence, and refuse to intellectually stimulate and communicate. They are even unaware of their king. The speaker refuses to live a torpid life and declares:" I will drink/Life to the lees". People quite often give up all their aspirations during old age. However, Tennyson wants to drink life to the 'lees'. 'Lees' refers to the grosser part of the liquid that has settled at the bottom. The poet implies that he gracefully welcomes old age with all the trials and tribulations it has to offer. Compare these lines to "Macbeth III, iii, 101 & 102:"The wine of life is drawn and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of".

He asserts that he has "suffered greatly' alone and with "those/That loved me". Note that one of Homer's oft-repeated epithet for Ulysses is "much-enduring". In his adventure with Cyclops, the enchantress Circe, the Lotoseaters and the Laestrygonion cannibals, he had his faithful cannibals with ,though in steadily decreasing numbers, but when he reached the island of Ogygia, and when he was presented to Alcinous, he was alone, all his followers having perished in the sea in consequence of Apollo's wrath.

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 honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

The speaker declares how he wandered through the 'scudding drifts" or how he flew swiftly before the broken clouds. 'Hyades' signifies a cluster of seven stars forming the head or the face of the constellation Taurus. "Hades" is derived from a Greek word meaning "the rainers" and the name was given to the cluster of stars because their appearance indicated 'rain'. Therefore it serves as a symol of fertility and productivity with reference to "Ulysses". The phrase "rainy Hades" is also found in Virgil's "Aeneid",i, 744. Stopford Brooke remarks that Tennyson touches Nature in this poem with "extraordinary brevity and force." He wants to become "a name" ,that is, he longs to render himself famous and create history.In Tennyson's "Dream of Fair Women", Cleopatra speaks of herself as a "name forever".Critics point out in connection with the phrase "hungry heart" to "Mattew,V,6":Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. " Windy Troy " is a Homeric phrase.

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! 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 gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

Two interpretations have been offered regarding the above first four lines. One is that my present character is enlightened of experiences of the past life. The second is: I have taken an active part of significant events that I have witnessed, rather than limit myself to being a passive spectator of events. Therefore he has become an integral part of history, and no chapter of the places he has visited is complete without the mention of his name. All experience is an archway through which one can apprehend the unexplored regions. The nearer one approaches the area, the farther do their borders recede. Very aptly, he uses the metaphor of being unburnished or unpolished where the rusting commences after action or use has died away. Falstaff makes a contrary statement in Shakespeare's "Henry IV ,Part II," It were better to be eaten to death with rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion",(Act I,Scene II,Line 245)Even if Ulysses was gifted with a series of lives ,it would be inadequate to satiate his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. "Eternal silence" refers to Death that is universal. He asserts that his persistent activity has contributed to his savings, unlike other old people who become passive during old age in terms of activity. It has also added to his treasury of knowledge and experience. "Three suns" means three years. Some critics cooment that it may mean 'three days' .However, Mr.Wheeler affirms ,"Ulysses would have hardly planned his expedition had he only hoped to live for three more days. Knowledge is likened to a star that that disappears on the horizon. He longs to immerse himself in knowledge like a sinking star.

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

Telemachus is the son of Ulysses who was a little over twenty years at this time. Ulysses that he leaves to him the legacy of Ithaca(isle) and hands to him the royal sceptre. He had the insight into his duties. He had the capabilities to "civilize" the common people through his wise measures 'gently control' the people of Ithaca. he had a good insight into the domestic responsibilities. The line:" He works his work, I mine." Remind us of the final verse of Surah Al-Kafirun, Chapter 109 of the Quran:" To you be your Way and to me mine".

Some critics comprehend that this passage is filled with subtle irony .Mr.Brett says: "Telemachus is pictured as having all those virtues that his father lacked; he is great in all that is small, and probably small in all that is great".

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 honor and his toil.
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. Come, my friends.
'T is 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.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
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.

The poet calls on his fellow mariners to seek a new world of adventure. However, there is disparity here as all his followers were dead as per Homer's Odyssey and he had returned to Ithaca alone.He envisages a new world beyond the horizon. He aspires to do render justice to the armour and role handed over to him by Achilles.though oldage has rendered him weaker,iron will had made him stronger.He declares: To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.