Ulyssess Hero's Journey

I wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth, Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Ode to the West Wind by Percy Shelley all evidence the importance of new environments away from familiar territories: the speaker, in Wordsworth’s poem, explains his triumph when stumbling across a vibrant field of daffodils; Ulysses, in Lord Tennyson’s depiction, expresses his desire to escape his home island of Ithaca and travel around the world; the subject of Percy Shelley explores his aspiration to break free from his lack of creativity towards new lands of positivity. These authors, through the stories of their characters, paint wanderings and odysseys in favorable light, therefore portraying its critical nature to complete self-expression and success.

The poem, through the medium of two metaphors, argues that without experience and expeditions, life remains meaningless and enclosed with idleness. First, Ulysses claims that “all experience is an arch wherethrough / Gleams the untraveled world;” through this comparison, he generates a motivational atmosphere in which he equates the joy that lies ahead to the simple crossing of an arch (Tennyson 19-20). He therefore challenges the reader to take the first step unto an unforgettable path, one filled with satisfaction, captivation, and intellectual growth. The ability to traverse unchartered territories can be equated to the sole movement through an arch. Ulysses furthers his monologue with a comparison between the human mind and armor built from metal: “How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!” (22-23). The speaker, through this comparison, continues to implore the audience to engage the mind, rather than let it decay and “rust” with each idle moment that passes. He claims that remaining dormantly at home spoils and deteriorates a human, rendering them unable and incapable of fulfilling their potential. Lord Tennyson ends the poem by

Even while in a state of isolation, the speaker finds joy and gay company in that of nature: “A Poet could not but be gay, / In such a jocund company: / I gazed--and gazed--but little thought / What wealth the show to me had brought” (Wordsworth 15-18). Despite his prior state of despair, the poet is able to accumulate affluence through the means of taking in his environment, as opposed to monetarily. His prior lack of motivation is suddenly replaced by immense satisfaction and an ineffable expression by his wandering across a “a host, of golden Daffodils; / Beside the Lake, beneath the trees, / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze” (4-6). Nature and his surroundings relieve him of his stresses in everyday life, exemplifying the outside world’s power and necessity. Even when “in vacant or in pensive mood, / They flash upon that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude; / And then [his] heart with pleasure fills, / And dances with the Daffodils,” filling his heart with pleasure and contentment and replacing the tension and anxiety of lying “oft on [his] couch,” fixated on the inside and enclosed world (20-25). Wordsworth, through I wandered lonely as a cloud, evidences and emphasized the the importance of simply embracing one’s atmosphere, rather than exiling oneself at home. The story of this poet continues to