How would you describe the speaker’s tone in ” Ulysses”? In Ulysses, written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, is a poem giving courage and hope. In this poem, the desire of Tennyson to reach out further more than he can, and to get away from the same everyday life are expressed. The tone of the speaker in Ulysses is not soothing but forcing for the hope. This can be seen from the end of the poem, “ Come, my friends,/ ‘ Tis not too late to seek a newer world. /Push off, and sitting wll in order smite” (lines 56-58).
He is ordering his ‘ friends’, to come with him, but at the same time he is expressing hope by telling what they are looking for: “ a newer world” (line 57). He is criticizing the mundane life people are living in and uses traveling to symbolize, going closer to the goal and a source to open up a new experiences. Tennyson uses first stanza describing a useless and hopeless everyday life. Then starts the second stanza with “ I cannot rest from travel” (line 6). Read paragraphSpace Exploration Pros and Cons.
By criticizing harsh on the usual daily routine and by describing travel as full of fresh fulfilling experience, Tennyson forces the readers to look for the hope and fight one’s way in life. This can be also saying the tone mostly found in the poem is epic, as it is full of adventure as in the last stanza, “ It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:/ It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,/ And see the great Achilles” (lines 62-64). The scale of the setting is large combined with fantasy, the Happy Isles, and is adventurous.
There is hardship the speaker is facing but the speaker gets over it, and reaches what he is up to. This is fulfilling what the epic requires. As the last line of the poem, “ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (line 70), the speaker is also heroic. He isn’t afraid of failing or the struggles, but determined for the hope and the goal he wants to reach. Tennyson’s Ulysses is a poem that starts from where old Ulysses returned to Ithaca, and as Ulysses is a heroic character, Tennyson expressed hope and journey. The heroic thoughts and lots of experiences are seen in this poem.