Overview:
Lord Alfred Tennyson is considered extraordinary when it comes to his literary approach. His poetry has always prevailed to insinuate the readers and beat their hearts with a glamorous ballad and romantic prose. Tennyson coalesces his erudite notions with discerning themes, which sketches the ingenious world for the readers. He manipulated allusions from different genres, embellishing the prose with his artistic use of similes, metaphors, and personification. However, sometimes he uses natural and plain language, making it susceptible to the bibliophiles to digest. Ulysses is one of the fairest works of Alfred Lord Tennyson.
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Introduction:
Ulysses is a blank verse poem, a sort of
theatrical monologue. The entire poem is an unrhymed iambic pentameter, which
adds a bit of verity to Tennyson's sermon. The poem is allocated into four
paragraphs, each of which refers to a varied perspective.
The poem is entirely in the first person, who characterizes himself as the prose persists. The poem is about an old character who illustrates his anguish and resentment on reimbursing his kingdom after his long journey. Despite, he’s been back to his kingdom, he wants to resume his excursion to scrutinize more marvels of the world.
Summary:
Ulysses expresses his frustration on the
retrieval of his empire. His existence transpires to be directionless as he has
to dwell on the rocky isle of Ithaca, along with his obsolete spouse. He
articulates his anguish in legislating and grief in implementing laws for the
preposterous people whose only motive in life is to amass wealth. He believes
that his nation doesn’t acknowledge him and his resilience. They have
misconceptions about his endurance.
In the subsequent stanza, Ulysses
reflects his dismay and that he can no longer linger at one particular niche.
He wants to scrutinize the world again. He craves to feel that exhilaration
again, which he only perceives while traveling. He wants to proceed with his
excursion whether by himself or along with his battalion.
In the next stanza, the poet endorses
himself. He commends his popularity, he recollects how he was contemplated as
an incredible crusader who had discerned the entire world. He reflects that he
had assimilated a lot from the miscellaneous territories he saw. Every solitary
he encountered, bestowed him something, particularly a pilgrimage, which forged
his individuality. He believes that every place he has been, rectified him, but
it also left an influence on the place. He substantiates his euphoria and his
contentment by seeing the blossom of people, the magnificence of civilizations,
and the merge of traditions. He also mentions that he rejoices to riot in wars
alongside his comrades and his honored and dauntless fellow soldiers. But
still, these ordeals, don’t quench his thirst for travel. According to him,
nothing can fill the appetite for exploring the world, scouring the forsaken
spots, and embracing the universe.
In the successive verse, the poet
embellished that straddling at home is the worst demon, a person like him can
confront. He had always desired to be a star. Though humans can glimpse astars
only to a particular latitude, the star itself can grope the entire sky and
adventure what is beyond the horizon.
In the ensuing stanza, the poet
cherished his son, Telemachus, who will preside over the kingdom, while he will
be involved in the exploration of the universe. In the final stanza, the poet
addresses his collaborators, with whom he had been on phenomenal adventures. He
urged them to rejoin him for his conclusive expedition. He speculates that old
age can never halt them to revoke them from their journeys. He encourages them
that they might surpass “Happy Isles” or the utopia of perpetual summers,
mentioned in Greek folklore, where great combatants like Archilles have been
taken after cessation. He addresses that they might not be as robust as they
had been in adolescence, but they still have the will to follow their
fascination, to aspire, to seek, and to search and not to yield.
The poem is interpreted by Syeda Rabia Batool Naqvi, one of the permanent contributors to the SOL Community.
Interesting Thing!
Do
you know Alamgir Hashmi, one of the famous Pakistani poets has written on the
struggle of Ulysses in a miniature form, under the title; Encounter with the Sirens. Click here to read the summary and in-depth analysis here.
