Notes on Tennyson & the Greek myths

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Notes for
Poems Based on Greek Myths

"The Lotos Eaters" (p. 1887-1890)

Lotos is like a drug. People who ate it became hooked and didn’t want to work or do anything. They forgot their homes and lost their ambition to return home.
Similar to opium.
Hard work = good fortune. Must do your duty.
The Duty/Work Ethic was strong in the Victorian era. Ulysses call to "Courage" (1) is properly Victorian. Theirs is to sail/strive. Can’t sit around on island and get high.
46 "Choric Song" The chorus in classic drama is a group that plays a part in the drama & interacts as a group with the individual characters. Here Ulysses is the individual and his mariners who eat the lotus form the chorus.
They don't want to work any more. What is the point to all this struggling? They want to become hippies.
115 What do we have to return to? After 10 years at Troy, our wives have probably remarried & our children forgotten us.
The mariners' sentiment belongs to a tradition called "lentus in umbra" - at ease in the shade. As long as they stay here, they have it made in the shade.
Tennyson does not answer their argument here, but he does in "Ulysses."

"Tithonus" (p. 1893)

Tennyson wrote "Tithonus" and "Ulysses" at the same time - October 20, 1933 - shortly after he had received the news of the death of one of his best friends, Arthur H. Hallam
Tithonus was a mortal who fell in love with a goddess, rosy-ankled Dawn. Tithonus asked the goddess that he be permitted to live forever so that he would not have to leave her. He forgot, however, to ask for eternal youth, so he was forced to live forever as he got progressively older and more feeble.
22 he is "immortal age beside immortal youth." Dawn herself doesn't age. She's still young.
30 wants to die now. He finds immortality "cruel" (5)
49 She can't take back her "gift," so he's stuck.
70ff prays for death again.

"Ulysses" (p. 1891)

"Ulysses" is based on the exerpt from Dante's Inferno that you read.

DANTE

In Dante's day during the Middle Ages, ambition was bad. A person should be happy in his or her place.
According to Dante, Ulysses did not return home. He kept exploring with his crew after they left Circe. In Homer, Odysseus/Ulysses went to Hades after leaving Circe. Here he almost reaches Purgatory, then ends up in Hell.
He eventually crossed the barrier set up by Hercules as the limit of human exploration.

Tardy with age
Were I and my companions, when we came
To the strait pass, where Hercules ordain'd
The bound'ries not to be o'erstepp'd by man. (xxvi. 118-121)

Ulysses and his men have launched into the Atlantic Ocean. They sail until they see a giant mountain. This mountain was Purgatory, where people could have their sins "purged" until they were good enough to enter heaven.
For the crime of exceeding human boundaries and trying to reach Purgatory by their own power rather than by God's grace, Ulysses & his companions are washed down in the ocean.

TENNYSON

Tennyson may deal with the same events in almost the same words, but he has a very different outlook on Ulysses' ambition. The Victorian was a time when ambition and striving were good.
Arthur Hallum, Tennyson’s friend, had just died at sea. Tennyson must continue in his duty anyway. He also needed to find comfort in Hallum's death--he died as an active man engaged in meaningful activity.
The genre of the poem is dramatic monologue. It is an ancient genre that had recently been popularized again by Robert Browning.
Characteristics of a dramatic monologue:

somebody is speaking
the whole poem is the character's speech
the character is in a dramatic setting; there is a particular audience, time, and place.
the reader must determine from hints in the poem:

the identity of the speaker
the identity of the audience & the relationship between them
the setting & time
the speaker's purpose.

In this poem

the speaker is Ulysses.
There are three paragraphs in the poem. Ulysses is the speaker in all three sections, but the audience, purpose, and setting change each time, so his purpose changes as well.

In the first paragraph, he is alone. The "hearth" is the fireplace. It is "still," meaning that the fire is out. Since the fire was used to cook as well as for heat, the only time is was out was night.

He can't be talking to Penelope, for he calls her his "aged wife." He wouldn't call her the old lady to her face. He's not talking to a subject - he calls them a "savage race." He is talking to himself. His purpose is to determine what to do with the rest of his life.

The second paragraph is Ulysses' abdication speech. The audience is composed by the citizens of his kingdom. His purpose is to pass the scepter on to his son. Note the elevated style of his speech, fitting for a formal state occasion. His subjects are now "a rugged people" rather than a "savage race."

The third paragraph is Ulysses' speech to his sailors as they prepare to set sail. His purpose is to inspire them to great achievements.

The theme of the poem is the purpose of striving. Unlike the Lotos Eaters, Ulysses can't be satisfied to be lentus in umbra. He needs to do something, or he will lose his self-respect.

Paragraph 1

The purpose of this paragraph is to show Ulysses' motives. WHY would a king leave his kingdom, a husband his wife, a father his son, and strike out on his own? What would make a man like John Glenn retire from the Senate to re-enter space?
(1-5) The poem takes place at the end of Ulysses’ life. He has become sedentary – not accomplishing anything. Tired of the drudgery of governing.
He is talking to himself. Has decided to leave. King is lonely – no one knows him. The subjects are like animals - they "feed" rather than eat.
(2) "Still hearth." It’s nighttime.
(12) "I am become a name" – Has 2 meanings -

he has become a legend
he’s only a legend.

(18) "I am a part of all that I have met." He keeps some of those he met with him & leaves some of himself with them.
(20) "Margin" of the world is the horizon and it moves away from him. The "arch" is the place where is is at the moment. The important thing to him is where he is going, not where he is.
(23) "rust unburnished" - His armor is probably decorating the wall above the fireplace. Sword is on wall and rusting – like he is.
(29) "three suns" sometimes = three days, but = three years here. He could live for three more years if he really took care of himself, but is that really living? He doesn't want to doze under the lotos tree or molder in his bed like Tithonus.

Paragraph 2

This is the abdication speech. His tone & vocabulary change markedly. He came back because his son was not yet ready to assume command. Now he is, and his temperament is such that he can enjoy ruling.
(41) They each have their different tasks. Telemachus' is ruling, Odysseus' is exploring.

Paragraph 3

(43) Tennyson changes the story somewhat. According to Homer, Odysseus was the only survivor of his crew. But here we have his mariners still surviving. Why? Tennyson knew the story, so he didn't just slip up. The mariners were the ones who went through battle and on the ship with him. They are the ones who know him, so Tennyson changes the story so that some survived. Could Captain Kirk fly off without Spock, McCoy, and Scotty?
(55) "newer world." Dante mentions the "new land," but he wrote before Columbus. Tennyson, of course, knew about the "New World." The United States was a rising power by his time.
(58-59) The direction (toward the western stars) & the time of day when they leave (sunset) both symbolize the fact that "you and I are old." Ulysses and his crew are going on their last voyage.

Tennyson uses the 2 possibile outcomes Dante mentioned.

They may reach the Happy Isles - the pagan equivalent to heaven, or in this case Purgatory.
They may be washed down into the sea.

For Ulysses, the outcome is irrelevant. What is important is that he end his life as he lived it, heroically. He may die, but he'll do it with his boots on.