Tennyson’s “Ulysses”: Interpreting the Lyric Poem (Online)

This one-session seminar will offer a reading and discussion of one of the great lyric poems in English, “Ulysses,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The poem is spoken by the legendary Ulysses, a character distinct from the poet himself, who may nonetheless have been chosen for certain affinities with the poet.

What are the peculiar attractions of the dramatic monologue as a genre? The poet seems to work as an inspired ventriloquist, but his own character and qualities are on the line. A dramatic monologue may also convey a hidden psychological truth by its use of perspective: the reader is prompted to ask, “Why would this speaker want to say something like what his words say?” In the case of Tennyson’s poem, a tacit motive relates to the flexibility of the language of self-justification.

Poems may convey some of their meanings through their connection with earlier poems or works of art. Tennyson’s “Ulysses” draws on Homer’s Odysseus, as well as the character of Ulysses in Dante’s Inferno (Canto 26). There are also links with Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.”