Ulysses

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Background information

For twenty years Ulysses had led a life of thrilling adventures. The Battle of Troy which
lasted ten long years was won by his cunning. During his return voyage, he was troubled
by gods and evil spirits and it took him another 10 years to reach Ithaca. Altogether, he
had been away from home for twenty exciting years – leading a roller-coaster lfie of
adventures.

Many years have passed since Ulysses has been reunited with his family and taken
charge of his kingdom. In contrast with his exciting old life, he now leads an uneventful
life. He feels bored and weary with a life that is too peaceful and quiet. Through
Tennyson’s poem he reveals his present state of mind.

It little profits that an idle king,

idle = lazy

Ulysses feels that he is wasting his time (life) in Ithaca, being lazy as a King – no
challenges at all.

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

hearth = fireplace - used here as a symbol of home

His home is too peaceful and quiet, totally unexciting.

barren crags = Ithaca is a rocky, unyielding land where nothing grows

As a farmer king, he is also disappointed that his land is infertile. It doesn’t yield
a good harvest after so much of hard work.

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Match’d = married to or mated with)

Penelope is the epitome of marital fidility (loyalty to one’s spouse (husband or
wife). Still, he feels bored and tired with his happy married life.

Mete = measure
Dole = distribute

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

His subjects (people he rule over) are savage (ignorant, illiterate and uncultured).

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
Hoard = stock (collect, save and store)
They have no greater purpose in life other than to make money, eat whatever they
want and take plenty of rest. They live like animals. They don’t have any great
ambition or desires in life. They don’t even know how great their king is.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees:

Lees = dregs or the sediments at the bottom of a wine bottle

Ulysses expresses his unquenchable thirst for leading a very active life.

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:

scudding = fast moving

drifts = waves of the sea / clouds
Hyades = a group of stars belonging to the constellation Taurus whose
appearance, ancient Greeks believed portended stormy weather

When he looks into his past he realises that he has always lived a very exciting life.
Life brought him great thrills and sorrows which he sometimes suffered or enjoyed
alone and, at other times, shared in the company of his beloved friends. He has
experienced the vicissitudes (ups and downs) of life on land, and also on raging
seas during stormy nights portended by the appearance of the Hyades in the sky.

I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known;

Ulysses says that he is famous all over the world because he has been a
globetrotter who has experienced life in all its infinite varieties.

cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;

He has been to the great cultural capitals of the world like Athens and Troy where
he interacted with people from all walks of life. He has also been to different parts
of the world and experienced the vagaries of weather like nobody else. The high
and mighty have always honoured him at their councils and in their royal courts.

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

He has also had a heady feeling while fighting fiercely alongside his worthy
contemporaries in the howling windswept battlefields of Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Ordinary mortals may claim that they have been transformed by life changing
experiences. In contrast, Ulysses claims that he has left the indelible stamp of his
 personality on all people he has met, in all activities he has taken part and at all
places he has visited.
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.

Arch = welcoming arch, erected to welcome guests to a function or festival

margin = boundary

Ulysses has had a wealth of experiences in his lifetime. Nevertheless, it does not
stop him from travelling further in search of new experiences. He feels that all his
past experiences have been like a welcoming arch that invites him to continue his
never ending journey. Through the arch he can see the shining unexplored world
lying beyond and enticing him to travel towards it. However, he finds that its horizon
withdraws further and further away from him as he walks towards it. He knows that
what lies in store for him is a never ending journey.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

Unburnished = unpolished

Ulysses laments that it is so boring to stop or wait. He fears that if he stops, he

will rust away like a sword that is no longer in use. Instead, he wants to shine
brightly like a well used sword by continuing his journey towards the unknown.

As tho' to breathe were life!

Complacent people may prefer to rest on their laurels. Hence, they seldom move
forward. They might falsely imagine that just breathing is living enough, but
Ulysses wonders how could such people be any different from the dead. He
doesn’t want to lead a vegetable existence like that.

Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains:

A person may be able to lead a long, uneventful life by choosing the safety of his
home and never straying too far away from it. Ulysses doubts whether such a life
holds any value to him. He accepts that he is an old man fast running out of time.

but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things;

eternal silence = death

He firmly believes that, before his inevitable death, he should put whatever time he
has been left with to good use. Without wasting away any of his precious time, he
 wishes to enrich himself with new experiences.

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.

vile = odious, extremely unpleasant

gray spirit = graying old man
hoard = accumulate, gather, collect
sinking star = meteor, comet

Ulysses hates to waste the remaining three years of his life by quietly preserving
himself at home. Unlike his subjects, he finds it meaningless to worry about the
mundane affairs of life, like making and saving money for the future. By failing to
enrich their present, they lead a complacent middle class life.

Whereas, despite his old age, Ulysses is left with a zest for life. He lusts after
desires and thirsts for new knowledge. He wants to chase after unearthly
experiences and shine brightly like a meteor that suddenly lights up the sky and
from where it ever so quickly falls and disappears into oblivion.