Tennyson's Poems Summary and Analysis of

"Ulysses"
Ulysses complains that he is “idle” as a king, home with his elderly wife, stuck passing
enlightened laws for a “savage race” that sleeps and eats but does not know him. He does
not want to cease his travels; he has made the most of his life, having suffered and
experienced pleasure both with others and alone and both at sea and on the shore. He is a
famous name; he has seen the world and has been honored everywhere. He also has
enjoyed battling at Troy with his fellow warriors.
He is “a part of all that I have met,” but this is not the end, for his experience is an
archway to new experiences, with the horizon always beyond reach. It is boring to stop
and wither away and be useless in his old age; simply breathing is not life. Multiple lives
would be too little to get the most out of existence, and little of his one life remains, but
at least he is alive and there is time for “something more.” It would be a shame to do
nothing for even three days; he does not want to store himself away. His “gray spirit”
yearns to attain knowledge and follow it “like a sinking star, / Beyond the utmost bound
of human thought.”

In contrast, his son Telemachus, who will succeed him as king, seems content to stay put
and simply rule the people. Ulysses loves him and knows that he will use his prudence to
govern wisely, turning the “rugged” people “mild,” and he is “blameless” and “decent” in
his “common duties.” He honors the family’s gods. Yet, Telemachus does not have his
father’s energy; “He works his work, I mine.”

Ulysses looks at the port and the sea beyond, calling to him. He recalls “the thunder and
the sunshine” of his mariners’ exciting travels together, their “free hearts” and free
minds, and understands that he and they are old now. Yet, they still can do something
noble and suited to their greatness, especially as they are men who once fought with
gods.

Light fades, and the day wanes. Ulysses calls out that it is not too late to discover a
“newer world.” They can leave this shore and sail beyond the sunset, exploring until he
dies. Perhaps they even will reach the Happy Isles and meet Achilles. Although they are
weak in age, much vigor remains; they still have “heroic hearts” which are “strong in
will” and want to persevere, to explore and discover and never give up.

Analysis
"Ulysses" was published in 1842 in the collection of poetry that secured Tennyson’s
literary fame. It had been written nine years earlier, when he was 24 years old, following
the death of his closest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. Tennyson commented that "it was
more written with the feeling of [Hallam's] loss upon me than many poems in In
Memoriam."
The poem is seventy lines of blank verse in the style of a dramatic monologue, with three
audiences—Odysseus himself, the reader, and his mariners (although he may only be
imagining what he might say to us and to his mariners). The poem garnered praise from
Tennyson's contemporaries as well as successive literary figures including T.S. Eliot,
who called it a "perfect" poem. It is generally considered one of his finest works and is a
mainstay of Victorian poetry anthologies as well as selections of Tennyson's oeuvre.

The poem is based on the character Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey ("Ulysses" is the
Latin form of the name), but Tennyson also drew upon Dante's Inferno, Canto XXVI, in
which Dante is led by the Roman epic poet Virgil to meet Ulysses and hear his tale. In
Homer, Odysseus is told by the blind prophet Tiresias that he will return home to Ithaca
but will then make one more journey to a land far away from home. In Dante, this part of
the story is fleshed out. Ulysses gathers his men together to prepare for the journey and
exhorts them not to waste their time left on earth. He dies on this journey, which is why
he is in Dante’s hell. Tennyson's character is somewhere in between these literary
predecessors, as Ulysses knows he will set off on a last journey but has not done so yet.
Critics also note the influence of Shakespeare, particularly his Troilus and Cressida, which
also includes Ulysses.
Tennyson's Ulysses is now old, having experienced all of the adventures of battle at Troy
and on the seas throughout his odyssey. Back home, he has had enough of his life as a
ruler of men, keeping the peace at home; instead, he desires to embark upon his next
journey. In the first part of the poem he speaks to himself, lamenting his uselessness as a
ruler given the idleness of his people. They have no ambition; they “know not” the kind
of adventuresome spirit that their king has. In contrast, he “will drink / Life to the lees,”
as is his wont.

Ulysses knows he is famous for his great deeds, but this is not what motivates him. His
inquisitive spirit is always looking forward. He has seen much and has seen a great
variety of cultures, but this is all in the past. Experiences have made him who he is, but
what matters is passing through the “arch” to the “untravell’d world” and constantly
moving toward the ever-escaping horizon. In addition to the arch, Ulysses uses another
metaphor here, calling himself a sword that must “shine in use” rather than “rust
unburnish’d.” Yet, at home he feels bored and impotent, yearning to truly engage with
what is left of his life. He is impatient for new experiences, lamenting every hour and
every day that he does not seek “something more.” His quest for adventure and
fulfillment, like the goal of Goethe's Faust, is defined by the pursuit of new and unique
knowledge “beyond the utmost bound of human thought.”

In the second part of the poem, as though spoken to the reader (although this address may
only be in his mind), Ulysses explains the difference between himself and his son
Telemachus. Yes, his son will be a fair and "decent" ruler to his people, but the political
life in this context is boring. Telemachus is rooted in regular political life, where one’s
aspiration is merely to lead a rough populace into accepting a somewhat better vision of
morality and expedience. It is a duty that a leader of uninspired and imprudent citizens
may well fulfill with honor, like fulfilling one’s regular duty to honor the “household
gods.” But to Ulysses this “slow” life is intolerable even if somebody has to do it. Thus
Telemachus “works his work, I mine.”
In the third part Ulysses seems to address his hearty mariners. The port, the boat, and the
seas all beckon him. The mariners are his compatriots; they have been through thick and
thin together. Unlike living under a king, on the seas they made their choices and took
their risks with “free hearts, free foreheads.” Those were the good old days, even fighting
with gods, but there is no good reason to waste away in nostalgia. So long as they can do
“something ere the end, / Some work of noble note,” Ulysses wants to be doing it.
Although the coming night in the poem reflects the waning years of their lives, it “is not
too late to seek a newer world.” The “many voices” of the ocean call out to them to come
back—the voices of experiences past and of experiences yet to come. Their life is
fulfilling when they are adventuring on the sea. No matter how much strength they have,
while they have it they retain the strength of “will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not to
yield.”

The allusion to Achilles in the Happy Isles (or the Blessed Isles) draws a contrast to
Hades. Whereas in Dante, Ulysses has died, here he holds out hope that he will reach the
heavenly isles where someone like vigorous Achilles deserves to spend eternity. In
Homer’s Iliad, Achilles is the featured warrior whose anger and valor generate the
primary storyline. He is a hero who lived his life to the fullest in Troy, once he got back
into the battle. But for much of the Iliad, Achilles sulked in his tent and left his sword and
his skills “unburnish’d.” Accordingly, Achilles is a good model of the heroic for Ulysses.
"Ulysses" has been called a "crisis lyric," which is a genre from the Romantic period that
presents a crisis and an attempt to resolve that crisis (see William Wordsworth's
"Intimations Ode"). For Ulysses, the crisis is due to old age: should he live out his days
as king, fading away in dotage like King Lear? Or should he refuse to focus on death as an
endpoint but, instead, constantly stay engaged in life as an adventurer? Will he live out
the boring but honorable life of Telemachus at home as he ages, or the noble and risky
life of surviving by his wits in uncertain waters, living by his strength of will even as his
body weakens? He knows death is unavoidable, but he also knows that death-in-life–the
impotency, the obsolescence–is intolerable for a person like him.
It may be a stretch to go a step farther and argue that Ulysses seeks to understand life
beyond death, but consider that “it may be” that they reach the isles where Achilles
resides. After all, Ulysses says that “my purpose holds / To sail beyond the sunset, and
the baths / Of all the western stars, until I die.” Critic Charles Mitchell notes, “one needs
to emphasize that Ulysses’s goal is not death, but is in death: that is, Ulysses seeks not
death, but life in death.” Other details in the poem support this view, such as the sea
voyage, which is often a symbol for the voyage of death; his old age; his referring to
himself and shipmates as spirits; and the “dark, broad, sea” which is unfathomable and
carries mysterious voices. Certainly it is quite an adventure to reach the isles or Hades or
somewhere that human beings normally do not reach while alive. Ulysses may indeed
want to find direct evidence of spiritual reality after death.
But this is not the point of the concluding lines. They are Ulysses' enduring challenge to
himself, and ultimately Tennyson's challenge to us, to push ahead with vigor and strength
of will no matter how old or weak our bodies are. To yield to age or weakness is to be
less than fully human. As honorable as it may be to live a peaceful life without risk, we
miss the most exciting aspects of life if we do not venture out, at least a little bit, into the
unknown.
Tennyson's Poems Summary and Analysis of "The
Lotos-Eaters" and "Choric Song"
Ulysses tells his men to have courage, for they will get to land soon. It seems like it is
always afternoon there, and the languid air breathes like a dream. A “slender stream”
trickles off a cliff. Other streams (this is a land of streams) roll throughout the land. Three
snow-topped peaks gleam in the sunset, covered with pine trees topped with dew. As the
sun sets, they see a dale and meadow far inland.
Here everything seems always to be the same. Dark but pale faces are set against a
backdrop of “rosy flame”; they possess melancholy smiles and mild eyes. They are the
Lotos-Eaters. They carry branches heavy with flower and stem and give them to the men.
When the men taste these flowers and fruits they hear a rushing of waves, and if their
companion speaks, their voice sounds far away, as if from the grave.

The men sit on the sand “between the sun and moon.” It is pleasant to think of one’s
home and one’s family, but every one of them is weary of the sea and the oar and the
fields of foam. One of them says that they will never return, and all of them sing together,
“our island home / Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam.”

In the “Choric Song,” sweet music falls, softer than petals dropping or night dew resting
on walls of granite. It is gentle on the sprit and brings gentle sleep. In this place are soft
beds of mosses and flowers floating on streams.

A speaker asks why they are weighed upon with a feeling of heaviness and why they
must be consumed with distress when it is natural for all things to have rest. He wonders
why they should “toil alone” when they are the “first of things.” They go from one
sorrow to another and wander ceaselessly, without listening to their inner spirit that tells
them, “There is no joy but calm!”

In the middle of the wood a folded leaf is coaxed out from a bud by the wind; it grows
green in the sun and is moistened by the night dew before it turns yellow and falls to the
ground. An apple is “sweeten’d in the summer light” and drops to the ground. When its
time is up, a flower ripens and falls. It never experiences toil.

The dark blue sky is “hateful.” Death is the end of a life, but why should life be only
labor? Time will continue on, but they want to be left alone. They want to have peace and
do as other things do, to ripen and go to the grave. They want “long rest or death, dark
death, or dreamful ease.”

It is sweet to dream on and on, listening to the whispers of others and eating the Lotos
every day. They watch the rippling sea and let their minds wholly turn to “mild-mannered
melancholy.” The faces of their past are buried as in urns. Memories of their wedded
lives are dear to them, but by now changes must have occurred. The hearths are cold, and
their sons are now the masters. They would look strange and come “like ghosts to trouble
joy.” Other island princes may have taken their places while minstrels sing of the great
deeds of those at Troy. If things are broken, they should remain that way. It is more
difficult to bring order back and impart confusion, which is worse than death. Their
hearts are weary, and their eyes grow dim.

Here, however, they are lying on soft earthen beds with sweet warm air blowing on them;
they watch rivers moving slowly and hear echoes from cave to cave. The Lotos blooms
by the peak and blows by the creek, and their spicy dust blows about. The men have had
enough action and enough motion. They want to swear an oath to live forever in the
Lotos-land and recline like Gods together, “careless of mankind.”

Like Gods they can look over wasted lands and see the trials and travails of men: ”blight
and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery / sands,” but here they smile
and listen to the music of lamentation from the “ill-used race of men” who labor and
suffer and die. The men in the Lotos-land rest their tired limbs and find sleep more
pleasant than work or toil at sea or the wind and waves. The speaker tells his fellow
mariners to rest because they will “wander no more.”

Analysis
Published in 1832, “The Lotos-Eaters” with its “Choric Song” is one of Tennyson’s most
popular poems. It derives from a 15-line episode in Homer’s Odyssey that depicts
Odysseus (Ulysses) and his men journeying to the land of the lotos-eaters on their way
home from the Trojan War. Homer does not spend too much time describing the location,
and he has Odysseus forcing his men back to the boat although they do so with bitter
tears and lamentation. In Tennyson’s version, the men come to this land and fall under
the spell of the languid and sensuous land due to its powerful flowers and fruits that they
consume. Tennyson, in contrast to Homer, spends almost the entire poem dwelling on the
languorous effects of the lotus flower and the magnificent, beguiling beauty of the isle.
Whereas Homer’s Ulysses is aware of the disadvantages of such a life void of adventure,
Tennyson creates a lush mood and sets up a harmonious and complementary relationship
between the natural landscape and the inertia brought on by the flower.
Critics believe that the poem was inspired by a trip to Spain taken by Tennyson and his
close friend Arthur Henry Hallam (the friend whose death inspired the poem “In
Memoriam”). The scenery likely inspired this poem as well as “Oenone” and “Mariana in
the South.” Critics also note allusions to and inspiration drawn from the biblical Garden
of Eden and the forbidden fruit, Andrew Marvell’s “The Garden,” and John Milton’s
“L’Allegro.” James Joyce would later devote an entire chapter of his magnum
opus Ulysses (1922) to this Homer/Tennyson creation.
The first part of the poem consists of five stanzas of nine lines each in an ababbcbcc rhyme
scheme; these are called Spensarian stanzas, after the writer of [The Faerie Queen],
Edmund Spenser. This scheme lends itself to a slow and dreamy sensation. This is
furthered by the Alexandrine 12-syllable line, which contains an extra poetic foot (poems
often use 10 syllables or five feet), which slows down the lines even more. The “Choric
Song” is longer than the first part of the poem and is irregular in its rhyme scheme and
structure, suggesting a greater level of disorder to reflect the unfocused lives of the men.
In the poem the mariners are pleased to alight at a place where they can forget their toil
and weariness, and they set their minds at ease about their creeping old age and
irrelevance (embodied by the line stating that their sons are taking over their rule). They
are tired of the endless waves of the ocean and the hard labor they have performed; they
believe that they are due a period of rest and dreaming. It is natural for men to ripen and
fall like leaves and apples, and they only want to rest as they near their end. This is an
understandable position for the mariners to take, although it differs greatly from that of
the Ulysses we meet in Tennyson’s poem about him. Desired or not, this feeling comes
from the rich and stupefying lotos flower. It lulls them into a somnolent, dreamy state as
they spend their days lying idly and comfortably on beds of moss.

Since Tennyson does not include Ulysses’s forcible tearing of his men away from the
island as in Homer, the reader is left to see judgment of this lifestyle through Tennyson’s
portrayal of it. While the men’s desire for rest may be legitimate, their complete and utter
escape from the realities of life seems disturbing. Critics from the 19th century tended to
regard the poem, as critic Malcolm MacLaren writes, “as primarily artistic rather than
didactic” and “find in it an implied criticism of idleness and indifference,” while more
recent critics see the poem as “a defense of the life of the detached, self-sufficient artist;
these critics suppose that Tennyson means to commend the decision of the mariners to
abandon the outside world.” Note that the poem begins with “Courage!” and adventuring
on the land, and it is not until they taste the lotos that they choose to stay and loaf—the
question is whether the lotos clouds their judgment or clears it up.

More broadly, Tennyson’s poetry often comments on the nature of poetry itself, dwelling
on the mind’s experience and understanding of the world. The poem is about more than
the idleness and dreaminess of the men on the island. Note that the poem is structured,
especially in the song, with a similarly lazy and torpid structure. The rhyme scheme and
the sensuous, descriptive language create an environment for the reader that expresses a
pleasure of reading poetry, that of escaping into another world where one can reflect on
the real world and, perhaps, prefer the alternative one. One recent critic, William Flesch,
writes, “It is not necessary to derive a moral from ‘The Lotos-Eaters,’ which seems more
about the fact that poetry attempts to offer some consolation for the difficulties and
essential painfulness of human life.” Yet, such a decision—not to judge—seems to side
with the men rather than with the adventurous Odysseus, who thrives on such difficulties
and pains as a key to making the most of his life.
The Lotos Eaters by Alfred Lord Tennyson: Summary
Ulysses asked his crew (while returning home from the Trojan War) to be courageous
because the land was now in sight. He told his men that the next rising wave would carry
them to the seashore in no time. All of them reached the land of the Lotos-Eaters in the
afternoon.
It was a land where it was always afternoon. A dull air surrounded the entire sea-belt, and
moved like the breath of a above the dale. A shallow stream ran down the steep rock,
creating a hazy atmosphere like the smoke spreading on earth. It stopped for a while and
began to flow again in a visible way.
It was a land of streams, some of which flowed down the steep rocks like smoke, and
some danced upon the land like a thin cover of green grass. And some other brooks ran
though the flickering, faint lights and shadows, producing beneath them a slow moving
wrapper of froth. Ulysses and his companions saw the shining river flowing toward the
sea from the interior land. Far away three mountain-tops covered with snow of long
duration were visible in the light of the setting sun. The dark pine tree wet with rain-
drops shot up above the matted bushes.
The beauteous sunset tarried down on earth in the glowing West, the valley inside the
country was clearly visible through the fissures or cracks of the mountain. The yellow-
coloured open highland was encircled by palm trees, and several meandering smelling
thin plant called "galingale." The land of the Lotos-Easters was such as remained
unchanged through all the seasons. And the sad-looking and dark-skinned Lotos-Eaters,
who appeared pale in the rosy red light of the setting sun, came near the ship of the
manners.
The Lotos-Eaters had held branches of the magical lotos plant, - the branches covered
with flower and fruit, which they offered to each one of the crew. But to one who got the
flower and fruit and ate them up the sudden, profuse flow of the sea-waters appeared as if
lamenting and crying loudly on some foreign shores. And if any companion of Ulysses
spoke, his voice was as thin and spectral as that of a ghost. And while he was awake, he
looked to be in deep slumber, and his throbbing heart produced a sort of music in his
ears.
Ulysses and his companions sat down on the yellow sand on the seashore between the
setting sun and the rising moon, and got lost in dreaming sweetly of their homeland,
Ithaca, of their children, wives and servants. But as the time went on, it became all the
more difficult for them to face the troubles of the sea, the oar, and the moving surface of
the waters with foam floating upon them. The foam looked like 'fields' without crops, and
hence the word 'barren’. Then someone suddenly said, "We will not be able to return our
homes." Upon this, all others began singing together: 'our homes in Ithaca are far beyond
the scudding drifts of the sea; and we will move about no more'.
This is the chant of the crew. They observe that the land of the Lotos-Eaters abounds in
sweet music, which is smoother than the rose petals falling on the green grass. Or,
compared with the dew-drops falling at night on the sleepy waters than lie between the
walls of dark rock in a shining pass, the music of the land is still sweeter. This music falls
sweeter on human spirit than the tired eyelids of a person upon his tried eyes. It is the
kind of music that brings down delightful sleep from the happy heavens. Here are found
cool and deep swamps, through which the ivy creepers grow in plenty. And in the stream,
flowers having long leaves appear to be weeping, and the poppy plant hangs asleep by the
edge of the rough rock.
Ulysses and his sailors felt heavily burdened with sorrow and distress, while all other
things in Nature had peace of mind and cheerfulness. All other things enjoyed rest, why
should, then they alone labour? They, who were the noblest and best creatures in the
universe, were alone subjected to labour and suffering; they alone cried aloud in great
misery, having been thrown from one sorrow to another. They were such people as had
never folded their wings and stopped their travels abroad; nor did they drown themselves
in the healing, healthy balm of sleep; nor were they able to hear the joyous song of the
inner spirit. They were not likely to have real happiness but only forced calm. Why
should they, the noblest of creations on earth, alone work hand without break?
They observe with a sense of delight that in the midst of the wood the leaf that is not yet
open, is brought out by the wind on the branch, where it becomes green and big, without
caring for anything else. At noon it is saturated with the sun-rays and in the night it is
covered with dew-drops under the shining moon. At last, it grows pale and falls down
and runs to and fro in the blowing air. Similarly, the juice-filled apple becomes so sweet
in the summer season and so over-ripe that it falls down silently in an autumn night.
The flower also becomes ripe in its place within a number of days. It gets ripe and worn-
out, and then falls down, but it has to undergo no toil, no torture, being firmly rooted in
the fertile soil.
Having reached the land of the Lotos-Eaters, Ulysses and his mates lost all their aptitude
for adventures. Now to them the dark blue sky stretching over the dark blue sea like an
arch looked hateful and detestable. They thought of Death as an irrevocable and of life;
then why should life be all labour? They would have rather rest and peace. The wheels of
Time run very fast, and in no time men are driven to death. So, they would have rest and
peace. To them, nothing is everlasting in this world. All things are taken away from men
and become an integral part of the past. So, they would have rest and peace all alone.
There is no real pleasure in waging a war against the evil forces. There is no stable peace
of mind of traveling ceaselessly upon the breast of the ocean. All things in the universe
have rest and peace, and silently ripe and pass to the grave; they become ripe, fall down,
and disappear for good. So, they would have long rest or death, or a dreamy life of
comforts before death.
For Ulysses and his friends it was very sweet to sit or recline there with their eyes half-
shut in a state of sleepiness and hear the musical rush of the downward stream. They
would be happy to go on dreaming, like the yellowish, golden light of the setting sun,
which seems reluctant to leave the myrrh-bush on the height at some distance. Then they
would hear the soft and subdued voice of one another, eat the lotos everyday, and watch
the wavelets curling over the seashore and the lines of soft white foam that gently twirls
on the surface of the sea. Living there, they would delicate.
It was a land where the lotus grew in plenty beneath the high rugged rock, where the lotus
blew beside every narrow inlet of the sea. Here the low, cold air blew all day. Every
empty cave and lonely lane and all the hills fragrant with flowers were covered with the
pollen of the lotos. Ulysses and his men had already done a good deal of heroic work and
moved about freely in adventure. They had been tossed this way or that in their ship over
the sea, where the high waves were rising, and where the rolling massive whale was
throwing out gets of water though its nostrils. So, they won't travel any longer, and would
take an oath to live forever in the lotus-land thinking no more of mankind and its worries.
The Gods live usually in perfect bliss taking their delicious drink, amrita, but they throw
down lightning and thunderbolts on mankind below (as, the Greeks believed). They feel
all happy in their golden houses curled with clouds and girdled by the starlit sky. They
roll in mirth, laughing in their sleeves to see the suffering humanity below. They enjoy
secretly to watch devastation and starvation, plague and earth quake, thundering seas and
burning sands, raging wars and burning towns, drowning boots and supplicating people,
in the human world. They laugh secretly to find music in the music in the miserable lot of
mankind, in its sorrows and cries, which have been perpetrated on it down the ages.
For the Greek Gods the prayers of people have no meaning at all, - the prayers chanted
for them by an ill-fated human race that tills the land, sows the seed, and reaps the crops,
with patient suffering, that collects every year a small quantity of wheat, wine and oil, till
it suffers inescapably and ultimately vanishes forever. Some persons, it is said, suffer
unredeemably down in hell, while others went to heavenly valleys to live there on the soft
beds of asphodel flowers, which might relieve greatly their worn-out bodies. If such was
the fate of Man, the Ulysses crew would prefer sleep to hard work while living in the land
of the Lotos-eaters; they would prefer the comforts of the seashore to the worries of the
deep ocean, of the buffeting breezes and waves and oars. So, O brother sailors! Let us
rest here forever, and we will not roam about any more.