I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than to never have loved at all.
from In Memoriam
stanza 27, lines 13-16

Recognized as greatest poet of Victorian England for more than fifty
years

Intensely private and introspective

Personal and subjective moods and states of mind in poetry

Known for division between public and private selves

Educated his children at home; disturbed and terrified them with his
emotional instability

Father was an educated but depressed Reverend

Grew up sensitive, well-read, but melancholy

Loved brothers and sisters, but spent much time alone

Began writing and publishing poetry anonymously before he was ten

Studies at Cambridge University in 1827

Poetry draws attention of a group of intellectuals called the “Apostles”
who offer encouragement

Meets best friend Arthur Henry Hallam, whose social wit and charm
offset his awkwardness and shyness

Hallam becomes engaged to Tennyson’s sister, Emily in 1830;
publishes first work under his name entitled Poems, Chiefly Lyrical the
same year

Hallam dies in 1833; begins his “ten years silence”

Does not publish anything during this time; secretly revises his
published poetry

Later tells son: “in silence, obscurity, and solitude he perfected his
art”


Returns to public notice in 1842 with publication of Poems;
begins fifty year period as major poetic figure
Publishes In Memoriam in 1850, an elegy recalling Hallam’s
death; made poet laureate the same year and marries Emily
Sellwood

Made a Lord in 1883

Dies in 1892; reputation exceeds that of Lord Byron
“I am a part of all that I have met” met”
f
Line
From Ulysses, Line 18

Huge man with a great mane and shaggy beard

Often dressed in picturesque fashion

Read poems in public with resounding voice and rough
manners of the country

Earned considerable money for his poetry

Often read privately to Queen Victoria


Wrote lyrics, dramatic monologues, plays, long poetic
narratives, elegies, and poems commenting on specific
occasions
Fulfilled Victorian Idea of what a poet should be, which is...
 Mastery
of sounds and rhythm
“The shallop flitteth silken sailed”
(“The Lady of Shalott”)
“The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came”
(“The Lotus Eaters”)
“The moan of doves in immemorial elms
and murmuring of innumerable bees.”
(The Princess)

Genius for evoking moods and states of mind: a sense
of nostalgia, wistful longing for the past or for remote
experiences; master at linking this with nature
“ With blackest moss the flower-plots
Were thickly crusted, one and all;
The rusted nails fell from the knots
That held the pear to the gable wall.
The broken sheds looked sad and strange;
Unlifted was the clinking latch
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch
Upon the lonely moated grange.”
From “Mariana”
 Engages
political, religious, and scientific
issues of his day; responsive and honest,
not philosophical or intellectual
“Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems
So careless of the single life...”
From In Memoriam, stanza 55, lines 5-8
Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus (19th Century)
by J. M. W. Turner
Ulysses is the hero of Homer’s ancient Greek Epic poem The Odyssey;
Homer tells of Ulysses’ adventures on his way home to Ithaca from the
Trojan Wars. Tennyson’s poem picks up long after Ulysses has
returned; the aging hero has grown restless and is preparing to set out
with a band of his followers on his legendary last voyage. After an
exciting life of both marvels and horrors, the old king may rest; here
however, Ulysses wants to leave home yet again and embark on a final
journey. He knows lost youth cannot be regained, but he seeks
something else.
vv
Tennyson said of the poem: “Ulysses’ was
written soon after Arthur Hallam’s death,
and gave my feeling about the need of
going forward, and braving the struggle of
life perhaps more simply...”




The poem is a dramatic monologue, also known as a persona
poem
Shares many characteristics with a theatrical monologue: an
audience is implied; there is no dialogue; and the poet
speaks through an assumed voice—a character, a fictional
identity, or a persona.
Because a dramatic monologue is by definition one person’s
speech, it is offered without overt analysis or commentary,
placing emphasis on subjective qualities that are left to the
audience to interpret.
Poem is connotative, or contains more than the literal
(denotative) meaning, emotions, and associations of its
words and phrases
1. How would you summarize Ulysses’ complaint
in the first five lines?
2. What is the basic theme expressed in line 18?
3. In lines 22-28, how does Ulysses think life
should be lived?
4. What is your interpretation of lines 22-32?
Paraphrase and explain.
5. How is Telemachus like or unlike his father?
6. What will Telemachus’s work be (lines 33-43)?
7. What can Ulysses gain in his old age?
8. How do lines 58-61 suggest the central theme
of the poem?
9. State the theme of “Ulysses” as expressed in
the final five lines of the poem.
10. Cite three passages that support the central
theme of the poem.