Alfred, Lord Tennyson on “Ulysses”

I have been found of this piece sense the eighth grade when I first read it in conjunction with the Odyssey. At the surface it is the story of our hero returning to a life of adventure. However, it is more than that in which it captures the age’s ideals. At this time emigration was starting to take place and massive waves of people were heading to America in search for a new adventure. Even though their homeland provided what was necessary for them. For this time period idleness is what was preached against. The idea o staying home and living the normal and slow life was not acceptable. Instead one had to seek adventure much like Ulysses. This ideal is displayed by showing Ulysses old exploits at home. But by the end of the poem we get a sense of grandeur almost as if the exploration makes a person more interesting and maybe into a hero. In some ways this is like a modern commercial that makes you into a hero if you buy the new thing. For Tennyson, the hero is on the move, and therefore the average person must also be on the move. The style of this poem conveys this sense of motion as it builds upon itself to the glorious conclusion that Ulysses “…sail beyond the sunset, and the baths/ of the western stars, until I die” (594). For Ulysses will always be restless and wants to explore new ways. This is why he sailed away from the main fleet on the way home and took over ten years to get home. But for Odysseus this is not a problem. While he did long for home it is written here and in Dante’s Inferno that he leaves again to explore the world. It is a common subject for someone to never be satisfied with what they have accomplished. For this poem expresses that. I feel that Tennyson is expressing that idleness is a vice and that one should be in motion and explore what all was going on around your life.