Critical Analysis of 'Ulysses' by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Critical Analysis of 'Ulysses' by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Ulysses is a poem written by the Victorian Poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the traditional blank verse in unrhymed Iambic Pentameter, which serves to impart a fluid and natural quality to Ulysses’ speech. It was written in 1833 and published in 1842. It is in the Dramatic Monologue form where the main principle controlling the poet’s choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest, the speaker’s temperament and character. Tennyson had a history of a troubled home environment, where he experienced, like the rest of his family, epilepsy fits, which kept his health below average always. His immediate family was unfortunately not handed down the family throne by his grandfather, who violated traditions and made his younger son his heir. His father’s physical and mental condition worsened and he became paranoid, abusive and violent. Later on, in 1827 Tennyson escaped with his two elder brothers to Trinity College in Cambridge to begin his journey as a poet. Through his four years in college, his friendship with Arthur Hallam, another precariously brilliant Victorian poet at the time. Their relationship made a huge impact on Lord Tennyson. As we can see his from his later works like “Ulysses”, “In Memoriam” and so on, these were a product of the grief Lord Tennyson experienced due to Hallum’s death from a serious illness. By 1850, at the young age of 41, he was appointed the most popular poet of the Victorian Era.

This poem is set when King Ulysses returns home to Ithaca from a long journey of fighting in the Trojan Wars. His pursuit of knowledge beyond human bounds and for his adventures in disregard of his family has been critiqued heavily on a positive and negative light.

The first stanza introduces us to the mindset of Ulysses. His idea of an ideal King is not of one who sits around the fire with his wife and making laws for people who don’t even know him. He compares people to a sort of animal (“savage race”), who needs to be fed and taken care of. He feels uneasy as he knows he is meant for more meaningful things. Here, we get to question Ulysses selfishly claiming his family and kingdom as less important to him than his needs and wishes. This demonstrated how he resembles flawed protagonists in earlier literature..........................................................................................................................

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