It seems the case with the speaker/warrior, who has gained so much in his life but he now has to stay there to civilize his people whom he calls “s a v a g e”. If we compare these lines with history then we realize that once a king/general captured a settlement, it was much necessary for him to stay there to avoid restlessness among the people to stop a revolt. Now, he has to sit on the king’s chair and make laws for the welfare of his people, whom he thinks are very uncivilized. The warrior, whom we talked about previously, has been retired. That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole It seems to the audience/readers that the king is a warrior too and not limited only to the king’s chair.

In depth if we do analysis of “barren crags” then it seems a clear-cut critical situation of the speaker and seems that it is a metaphor that Alfred Lord Tennyson uses for appreciation of the adventurous life of Ulysses in this poem as he feels himself in a prison. Second line of the poem strengthens this stance.

It seems from the very first line of the poem the king does not want a robotic life. The speaker’s frustration is very much transparent. It seems that he is no more interested in machine-like kingship. The king of Ithaca uses this for himself. Idle is a word usually used for a person, who has nothing to do and mostly for one who is lazy. Ulysses is the speaker and he directly talks to the audience/readers and starts his discussion: It little profits that an idle king,īy this still hearth, among these barren crags, Critical analysis and appreciation of the poem Ulysses by Alfred Lord TennysonĪs mentioned earlier, the poem is a dramatic monologue. In short, in this poem the poet has revoked Greek mythology like most of the poets of Victorian age. All in all, critical analysis of this poem reveals that Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote memories of Ulysses as an appreciation of the courage and bravery of the Trojan hero. He does not wish for this kind of life thus, he talks about the good old days. He knows that he is going to die and death is approaching him, hence, he is very much displeased because of unpleasant days. Ulysses starts discussion of his life in descending order. The poem is a dramatic monologue therefore, there is no other dialogue of any second character. Odyssey is also the second name of Ulysses therefore, we can use both these names interchangeably.Ĭertain qualities of the aforementioned hero are obvious in this poem. He was also mentioned in Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey. The poem is about a Greek hero also the king of Ithaca. Alfred Lord Tennyson is especially remembered due to portrayal of Victorian age in his poetry as evident from critical analysis as well as appreciation of his dramatic monologue “Ulysses”. We, being students of literature, know him because of his remarkable contribution to English poetry. Like other poets, Tennyson has also been known as a good representative poet of his era.

Ulysses tennyson