Tone Of Ulysses By Alfred Tennyson

Ulysses, by Alfred Tennyson, is set after Odysseus's journey. Odysseus was on a 10 year trip to finally get to his home, Ithaca. His life on his trip was interesting and adventurous, but now in Ithaca he does the same boring activities everyday. Due to his reflections, the speaker’s tone in “Ulysses” is overall reminiscent, but there are many shifts in the tone through each stanza.

In lines 1 - 5, the tone of the poem is negative. In those lines, there are abundant uses of negative connotations. The words he uses emphasizes how much he dislikes his boring life in Ithaca. For example, the speaker says, “an aged wife” and “an idle king”. Also, lines 1 - 5 are very long with multiple commas. The sentence is like his life now, long and repetitive. “It little profits that an idle king, by this still hearth, among these barren Vegas, match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole unequal laws on a savage race, that hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.” Later, in the poem, Ulysses says that he has become a name. He is a symbol for hero. This shows that he shouldn’t be doing the same, boring actions everyday,

The tone shifted from negative to exciting. The punctuation uses a lot of colons, semicolons, and commas. The punctuation creates the exciting tone because it fluctuates and leaves no pauses for the speaker. For example, “Much have I seen and known; cities of men and manners, climates, councils, governments” Similar to the beginning of stanza 1, the speaker uses connotations, but they are positive this time. He describes his adventures and journeys positively because that is what he symbolizes. For example, he uses “drunk delight” and “gleams that untravell’d world”. Ulysses emphasizes that he can’t stop exploring and going on journeys. This is because he lives his life to the fullest and symbolizes being heroic. “I cannot rest from travel : I will drink life to the