UNIT 1  ALFRED LORD TENNYSON-1

Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Victorian Age
1.3 Tennyson: Life and Works
1.4 Lines from ‘The Lotos-Eaters’
1.4.1 Poem
1.4.2 Glossary
1.4.3 Discussion
1.5 ‘Ulysses’
1.5.1 Poem
1.5.2 Glossary
1.5.3 Discussion
1.5.4 Poetic Technique and Appreciation
1.6 ‘Break, Break, Break’
1.6.1 Poem’
1.6.2 Glossary
1.6.3 Discussion
1.7 Let Us Sum Up
1.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, we shall discuss some poems by the eminent Victorian poet
Tennyson. After reading this Unit carefully, you should be able to:
●● describe the life and works of Alfred Lord Tennyson;
●● understand certain aspects of the Victorian age;
●● analyse the poems selected for you;
●● explain lines with reference to their context;
●● define Tennyson’s poetic technique.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
In this Unit, we shall take up three poems by Tennyson. These are ‘The
Lotos-Eaters’, ‘Ulysses’, and ‘Break, Break, Break’. We have only been
able to give you the concluding lines of ‘The Lotos Eaters’. These lines
are part of the celebrated ‘Choric Song’ that is a masterpiece of powerful
description, verbal felicity and haunting rhythm. You will also read ‘Ulysses’
in its complete form. Finally, we have selected a short lyric ‘Break, Break,
Break’, for you.
Before we discuss the poems, let us briefly look at some aspects of the
Victorian age. This will give us an idea of the social and historical context

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 123 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I from which these poems emerged. A quick look at the life and works of
Tennyson will not only introduce us to the poet but will also facilitate our
understanding of his poetry.

1.2 THE VICTORIAN AGE

The reign of Queen Victoria which extended from 1837 to 1901 is referred
to as the Victorian Age. As you can see, this covered the better part of the
nineteenth century. How do we define the Victorian Age? It is difficult
to characterize any age in one or two sentences because each epoch is a
complex of various historical, political, economic, social and cultural
factors. However, it would not be far from the truth to term the Victorian
Age as a period of peace and prosperity. Seventeenth century England was
rife with Civil War and revolutions and the eighteenth century witnessed
recurrent wars against France.
However during the nineteenth century the only wars were the Crimean
War (1853-54) against imperial Russia and the Boer War (1899-1902) in
South Africa which only served to enhance Britain’s power and prestige
which reached its zenith in the mid-nineteenth century. It was a period of
imperial expansion. It was also a period of economic prosperity marked by
a strong ethic of self-help. Hard work was regarded as the key to success.
There was an intense feeling of national unity and optimism. The familiar
image of Queen Victoria with her husband Prince Albert and their children
only served to emphasize the importance of the family as a key social unit.
The Victorian age was also rather moralistic and the Queen’s soberly clad
figure only stressed the propriety and decorum that marked nineteenth century
English society. Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859), by expounding the
theory of evolution, shook the foundations of religious faith.
The Victorian age is often referred to as ‘an age of giants’. The writers of
the period were confident and extremely prolific. The Elizabethan age can
be seen as the age of drama, the Romantic age as the age of poetry, while the
Victorian age can boast of the best English novels ever written. The novels of
Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, George Eliot, G.M. Thackeray, George
Meredith and Thomas Hardy, as we know, are widely read even today. This
is not to suggest that the poetry of the period was in any way inferior. The
poetry of the age is a continuation of the Romantic tradition on one level,
while on another, it is also an expression of the spirit of its age. In general
terms, one might well say that while Romantic poetry emerged as a product
of the poet’s individual mind and experiences, Victorian poetry seems to
evolve out of a more general spirit of the age. For example, Romantic poetry
comes straight from the heart, while Victorian poetry gives the impression
that a poet is always aware of his/her own exalted status and this dictates
the tone and the manner in which she/he addresses the reader. This does
not mean that the Victorians did not express their emotions. Some of the
lyrics are intensely personal as you will discover in the course of this Block.

1.3 TENNYSON: LIFE AND WORKS

Let us now briefly look at the life and works of Tennyson. After Wordsworth,
it was Tennyson who became the Poet Laureate, the representative voice of
124

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 124 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 Victorian England. Not only did he write several volumes of poems but Alfred Lord Tennyson-1
Tennyson also wrote drama, though his fame rests primarily on his poetry.
LIFE
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809- 1892), was born in a village in Lincolnshire,
where his father was a rector. A rector, as you know, is a clergyman in
charge of a parish. Tennyson was the fourth child in a large family of twelve
children. Even as a child, he preferred solitude and wrote his first poem at
the age of eight. Most people think of Tennyson as a very serious person.
Few know that he wrote a hilarious play The Devil and the Lady when he
was only fourteen.
Educated at the local grammar school, Tennyson went to Cambridge
University in 1828 where he became close to Arthur Henry Hallam.
Subsequently Hallam was engaged to Tennyson’s sister. When his father
died in 1830, Tennyson left the university without a degree and published his
Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. His second volume The Lady of Shalott and Other
Poems (1832) was viciously attacked much to the dismay of the sensitive
poet. But the poet faced his darkest days on the death of his dear friend
Arthur Hallam who died at the age of 22. The shattered Tennyson wrote In
Memoriam (1850) which was published several years after Hallam’s death.
Tennyson married Emily Sellwood in 1850 and became the Poet Laureate
after Wordsworth. He won much public acclaim but his gifts seemed to
have declined after In Memoriam. As a later poet, Laureate Alfred Austin
put it, ‘his fame ... increased precisely as his genuine poetical power ...
steadily waned’. However, Tennyson’s memorable verse has earned him a
permanent place among the greatest writers the world has ever seen.
SELECTED WORKS:
Poems
Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830)
The Lady of Shalott and Other Poems (1832)
Poems: 2 Volumes (1842)
The Princess: A Medley (1847)
In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850)
Maud, and Other Poems (1855) :,
The Idylls of the King (1842-88)
Enoch Arden, Etc. (1864) ‘
Tiresias and Other Poems (1885) ,
Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)
Drama
Queen Mary (1875)
Harold (1877)
The Cup and The Falcon (1884) .

125

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 125 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I
1.4 LINES FROM ‘THE LOTOS-EATERS’
In this poem Tennyson’s interest in narrative verse is evident from his use
of medieval stories and classical mythology. He gives us an insight into the
philosophy of Ulysses the famous Greek hero who features in the great poet
Homer’s epic Odyssey. Who is Ulysses? Ulysses, the legendary Greek hero
was the King of Ithaca, who after the seige of Troy set sail for home. On his
way home, he was subjected to many storms and obstacles because of the
wrath of the sea-god Poseidon.
Once in 1830 while on holiday in the Pyrenees, the mountains between
France and Switzerland, Tennyson composed the line ‘slow dropping
veils of thinnest lawn’ which formed the germ of the poem ‘The Lotos-
Eaters’. The poem was first published in the volume of 1833 and after being
radically changed was included in the poems of 1842. As his biographer
Robert Bernard Martin records:
Once he [Tennyson] was sitting smoking with his feet on the chimney-piece
as he spouted ‘The Lotos-Eaters’ in its first form; unknown to him, Hallam
darted around to a table behind him and took it all down as fast as he could
to rescue it from oblivion.
We have only given you the grand finale of this poem for study. This in a
way counterbalances the mood of languor which has been established in the
earlier parts of the poem. ‘The Choric Song’ which is the most famous part
of this poem is a masterpiece of metrical variation that suits the pace of the
action and motion.
Ulysses and his mariners, after years of wandering have come upon this
enchanted island full of sensuous delights. The whole poem is a debate in
the mariners’ minds between the claims of duty on the one hand and the
vague pleasures and idleness of the island life on the other. The strenuous
life of the mariners is described in quick stanzas and these are contrasted
with the more gentle pace stressing the beauty of a life of abandon and
forgetfulness.
Let us now read the final part of the poem. In order to experience the full
musical effect of the poem, it must be read aloud. The glossary will provide
meanings of the difficult words and phrases.
1.4.1 Poem
LINES FROM ‘THE LOTOS-EATERS’
The Lotos blooms below the barren peak:
The Lotos blows by every winding creek:
All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone:
Thro’ every hollow cave and alley lone
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust is blown.
We have had enough of action, and of motion we,
Roll’d to starboard, roll’d to larboard, when the surge was seething free,
Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea.
Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
126

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 126 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind. Alfred Lord Tennyson-1
For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl’d
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl’d
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world:
Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying hands.
But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song
Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong,
Like a tale of little meaning tho’ the words are strong;
Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil,
Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil,
Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil;
Till they perish and they suffer—some, ‘tis whisper’d—down in hell
Suffer endless anguish, others in Elysian valleys dwell,
Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel.
Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore
Than labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar;
O, rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.
1.4.2 Glossary
blows : blooms
creek : inlet on a sea coast
alley lone : lonely narrow passage
starboard : right-hand side of a ship
larboard : left side of a ship
surge : a forward rolling movement like a wave
seething free : greatly agitated, or here, stormy
wallowing : indulging in gross sensual delights. The
wallowing monster is a metaphor for the
cruelly playful and destructive sea.
bolts : arrows
blight : disease
roaring deeps, fiery sands, : this catalogue of disturbance and destruction
clanging fights, flaming is used to stress the wanton behaviour of the
towns, sinking ships gods.
cleave the soil : plough the land
Elysian valley : (Greek mythology) abode of the blessed
after death
asphodel : immortal flower in Elysium.
1.4.3 Discussion
In this poem, the reader is greatly impressed with the musical beauty that
Tennyson has created from his sensitive use of an arrangement of words. It
is a perfect fusion of sound and sense. By skilful use of contrast, the poet
127

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 127 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I is able to evoke both the present serene location of the mariners and their
turbulent past.
At the very outset, we are told of the lotus flower that blooms everywhere
on the island, the yellow lotus dust that is blown in the breeze has a magical
soporific effect on the sailors. The mariners then contrast this with their
earlier life of toil on board the ship when through calm and storm all they
did was work. Remembering their earlier hardships, the mariners exhort
each other to swear unanimously to stay on in this enchanted island. Living
here would be nothing short of god-like. Just as the gods lie together in
their gleaming abode drinking nectar and playfully and carelessly hurling
bolts of disaster on the world, so they would live here unmindful of others.
They then dwell upon the futility of human life. Men on earth sweat and toil
throughout their lives and barely manage to make ends meet. And yet finally
they die---some go to hell to suffer endlessly while others go to heaven and
rest their tired bodies in Elysian fields.
What life would the mariners choose? They would rather be on shore than
toil on the seas. They have also concluded that sleep is preferable to toil:
‘Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more’.
The theme of the poem is that human life is futile and if the end of all
toil is to be the grave, then given the option one should choose a life of
rest and peace rather than duty and hardships. This is exemplified in the
mariners’ debate about whether to return home or whether to stay on the
enchanted lotus island and live a life of idyllic peace and restfulness. The
debate is resolved in the final line when the mariners decide to stay on in
that paradise. The end of this poem is quite different from that of ‘Ulysses’
as we shall see.
As you have seen, this poem is a masterpiece of sheer poetry that results
from a flexible and free handling, of the metre. It is written in iambic lines
of varied length--of between three to seven feet. The rhythm is also varied
by switching over to trochees and in the sixth line of section 8 it suddenly
becomes entirely trochaic and one cannot miss the effect of:
‘We have had enough of action and of motion we’.
Why does Tennyson do this? He adopts the rhythm to suit the sense of what
he is saying in that particular line. For example when he talks about the
mariners’ life of toil, the lines become quick-paced but when reference is
made to the indolent life of the island, the pace slackens, becoming more
serene.
If we look at the opening lines of this section, we can at once appreciate its
onomatepoeic excellence. He aims to evoke, mainly by the sounds of the
words, the feeling of the sensuous life. The words flow effortlessly.
The Lotus blooms below the barren peak:
The Lotus blows by every winding creek:
All day the wind bathes low with mellower tone;
Through every hollow cave and alley lone
Round and round the spicy downs the yellow
Lotos-dust is blown.
128

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 128 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 The smooth flow of words heightens the feeling of imagined peace and Alfred Lord Tennyson-1
languor. You must have noticed the predominance of the consonants l and b
and long ‘0’ vowel sounds. ‘Peak’ and ‘creek’ fit in with the mellow rhymes
of ‘tone’, ‘lone’ and ‘blown’.
Contrast this flowing tone with the vigorous movement of:
‘Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying hands’.
This gives you an idea of Tennyson’s technique of versification. With
alliteration and assonance combined with rhyme, the verbal music is
perfectly adapted to the poet’s tone and the exotic scene. Note the effect of
assonance—the suggestive ‘lo’ sound occurs 11 times in the first 5 lines.
From your study of this poem, the exquisite quality of Tennyson’s poetry
is quite clear. Let us now look at another poem—also based on the Ulysses
legend in the next section. But before we do that, let us complete the exercise
given below.
Check Your Progress 1
i) Describe the theme of the passage from ‘The Lotos Eaters’ in about
50-60 words.
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
ii) Write a short note on the verbal music in the poem (100 words approx.)
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
(Check your answers with those given at the end of this Unit)

1.5 ‘ULYSSES’
Before we read the poem, let us first briefly discuss who Ulysses was.
Ulysses, the legendary Greek hero was the king of Ithaca, who after the
seige of Troy, set sail for home. On his way home he was subjected, to many
storms and obstacles because of the wrath of the sea-god Poseidon. He was
forced to wander for another 10 years before he reached Ithaca, his wife
Penelope and son Telemachus. But a sedentary life was not what he wanted
and desired to travel again ‘to follow virtue and knowledge’ (Dante). In this
129

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 129 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I poem, Ulysses is about to set sail on a final voyage from which he will not
return.
Tennyson wrote this poem in a single day on 20th October three weeks after
he heard the news of Hallam’s death in 1833. Tennyson said ‘it was written
under the sense of loss and all that had gone by, but that still life must be
fought out to the end’. This is one of Tennyson’s best poems in which there
seems to be a balance between melancholy on the one hand and a sense of
living life actively on the other.
The poem tells us that Ulysses is close to Ithaca. In spite of being so close
to his home he is not happy. His wanderings have been quite fruitful as he
came into contact with people of different countries from whom he gathered
a lot of knowledge. He now has a feeling that he should continue this pursuit
of knowledge. To lead a peaceful life at home would be quite a dull thing.
He is also worried about his subjects who love only pleasure and care for
material things. Ulysses however hopes that his son can be taught to handle
the political affairs and give a new orientation to his people. And after his son
is ready, Ulysses will have time for more wanderings in order to have more
knowledge. This love for knowledge in a king who has suffered a lot not
only makes the character of Ulysses distinguished, it gives a philosophical
edge to the poem and takes us to a glorious aspect of Greek civilization.
There is grandeur in this quest for knowledge which touches us.
Let us now read the poem.
1.5.1 Poem
ULYSSES
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
130

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 130 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 For ever and forever when I move. Alfred Lord Tennyson-1
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
131

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 131 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
1.5.2 Glossary
barren crags : bare rocks. Here ‘still hearth’ and ‘barren crags’ signify
a sedentary and meaningless life.
aged wife : Penelope who has now grown old. She waited faithfully
for her husband for twenty years.
mete and dole : literally, distribute, here it means execute, (measure
and share out)
I will drink : ‘lees’ literally means dregs. Here this means that Ulysses
life to the lees is determined to experience life to its full extent.
scudding drifts : drifting waves
Hyades : the nymphs, who in classical legend, formed the
group of seven stars in the head of Taurus, the bull.
This constellation which when rising with the sun was
thought to be a sign of rain.
vext : disturbed i.e. created a storm
peers : equals
ringing plains : Ulysses had been one of the principal Greek heroes in
of windy Troy the wars against the Trojans. The Greeks beseiged Troy
to recover the beauteous Helen who had eloped with
the Trojan prince Paris. Helen’s beautiful face is said
to have “launched a thousand ships” in the sense that it
started the war between Greece and Troy.
arch : curved structure
unburnish’d : unpolished and dull because of being kept unused.
sceptre : staff which is a symbol of royal authority
isle : Ithaca
vessel puffs : the wind is favourable to embark on the journey
her sail
smite : to strike
sounding : loud stormy waves
furrows
Happy Isles : the island of the blest Greek paradise
Achilles : the greatest of Greek soldiers killed during the seige
of Troy. Achilles was invulnerable except in his heel.
Thus the expression ‘Achilles heel’ means the weak or
vulnerable point.
abides : remains

132

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 132 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 1.5.3 Discussion Alfred Lord Tennyson-1

Having wandered on many adventures, Ulysses returns to his island home

of Ithaca to resume his life as a ruler. But he finds himself bored with the
commonplace activities of daily life and longs to ‘sail beyond the sunset’
in search of a more fulfilling life. Where is Ulysses standing during his
speech? The clue to this lies in ‘By this still hearth’ ‘these barren crags’ ‘an
aged wife’. This means that he is probably close to his home near some bare
rocks. His dissatisfaction with his unexciting home, the surrounding area and
his not-so-young wife is clear. This restlessness is further increased when
Ulysses thinks about his own unenviable role of doling out justice to his
subjects whose principal aim in life is to eat, sleep and hoard material things.
Their preoccupation with the mundane prevents them from understanding
the real nature of their ruler, who cannot lead a similar life. He craves an
intense life full of excitement. Ulysses does not know the simple passions
of the common man. His joys and sorrows whether experienced alone or in
the company of his loved ones, have been equally intense.
Both on the stormy sea or the shore, Ulysses is now famous. With a great thirst
for adventure he has travelled far and wide, experienced different climates,
cultures and people of whom Ulysses found himself the most ‘honoured’.
He has faced the excitement of battle with his fellow countrymen on the
troubled plains of Troy. He admits that he has absorbed all that he has seen
and encountered and experienced. Yet experience is like an arch through
which the world that he has not yet travelled to, is visible bright and shining.
The more he sees, the more there is to see. If he stops now, he will become
dull. To breathe is merely to exist but to act is to live. He has lived a full
life but it was not enough. And the aging Ulysses feels that he has not many
years to live. He would like to pack every hour of his remaining years with
something new. As such it would be evil to waste his time stagnating in
Ithaca. His yearning now is still to seek knowledge which even the human
mind cannot conceive of.
The next stanza is spoken in praise of his son Telemachus. He bequeaths
his kingdom and his royal power to him. Ulysses admits his great affection
for his son and knows that he will execute his duties with great diligence.
He expects his son to guide his subjects gradually to an awareness not
only of what is useful but also what is good. Not only will he perform his
duties blamelessly but will also deal with his subjects tenderly in addition
to paying suitable homage to their gods. With these words Ulysses assigns
him these duties and gets ready to take up the pursuit of knowledge. What is
Ulysses’ attitude to his son? Don’t you think there is a hint of irony here for
he assigns those very duties to his son that he himself shuns? As we know
Ulysses is making a speech. But whom is he addressing?
The second line in the final stanza provides the answer. It is his mariners
that he is addressing. Pointing to the port and the ship with the wind in her
sails, he also gestures towards the dark blue seas. (The extremely deep blue
colour of the Mediterranean Sea is incredible and you would have to see it
to believe it.).Ulysses and his mariners have shared many joys and sorrows
and have now grown old together. Knowing that soon death will put an end
to everything, they can jointly strive to achieve some noble task that befits
133

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 133 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I men who have worked with their trust in the gods. It is now evening as the
day begins to end and the moon rises in the sky and the sound of the sea can
be heard all around. He then urges his mariners that it is never too late and
they could still hope to discover a new world. He then orders them to raise
anchor and plough through the noisy waves.
Ulysses wishes to ‘sail beyond the sunset’. This means that his route would
lie west. This is further confirmed by the phrase ‘western stars’. Their
destination could well be the bottom of the sea, or paradise where all of
them would be happy to meet Achilles, whom they know, as they had all
fought together in Troy. He says that much of life is over but still plenty of
it remains. And though they do not have the strength of youth which they
once had when they could achieve the impossible, he says their spirit is
still indomitable though they may have declined in physical strength. All of
them are heroically inclined and their motto would be ‘To strive, to seek,
to find and not to yield’. This is quite different from the final line of ‘The
Lotos-Eaters’ Where the decision is : ‘Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will
not wander more’.
What is the theme of the poem? Clearly Ulysses’ desire to travel does not
simply represent a desire for adventure. Tennyson used to say that it gives
the ‘feeling about the need of going forward and braving the struggle of life
....’ Ulysses represents the human desire for striving beyond human limits to
achieve something noble and great. Human beings must not simply live and
die a mundane life but must try to achieve something great before death.
1.5.4 Poetic Technique and Appreciation
It is a wonderful poem in which Tennyson makes a historical speaker touch
upon issues of contemporary life. It is a fact that Ulysses was a legendary
wanderer, an adventurous, fearless person who was forced by circumstances
to go to strange places and meet strange people. Tennyson, therefore, sees
in him the prototype of the modern researcher or explorer. The scientific
developments of his time were a thing of serious interest to him, and in his
poetry he has paid tribute to the spirit of scientists and researchers who were
expanding the area of human knowledge. In Ulysses, Tennyson sees such a
figure who is willing to devote the whole of his life to exploration.
As far as possible Tennyson tries to recapture the Homeric idiom– simple
similes, a vigorous narrative style with appropriate pauses and shifts of
mood and characterization through a long speech. A lot of associations are
there in the poem with the ship and the voyages – shore, scudding drifts,
vessel, sail, dark broad seas, sounding furrows, gulfs. They form the register
of an accomplished voyager, ringing with authenticity of experience. The
command of blank verse is an important feature of the poem. It helps
Tennyson follow every movement of the feelings and thoughts of Ulysses
in a dramatic manner.
As you may have noticed, this poem does not have the sheer music of ‘The
Lotos-Eaters’. Here Tennyson achieves the rhythm of ordinary speech by
the use of blank-verse. The poet works by suggestion and symbolism rather
than detailed statement. What is symbolized by”thunder and the sunshine’
(48)? Thunder and the sunshine stand for troubles and joys, all of which
were shared by Ulysses and the mariners. What metaphor is implied in line
134

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 134 6/21/2021 11:41:02 AM

 23? . ‘To rust unburnished’ suggests that copper if left unpolished, will rust. Alfred Lord Tennyson-1
Similarly, if Ulysses does not use his full potential he will become dull and
stagnate.
This poem was written three weeks after Hallam died of brain hemorrhage
on a trip to Vienna. Does this poem have any connection with that event?
For one, it is melancholy in tone. Moreover, Tennyson uses the situation
of Ulysses to explore his own emotional response to his friend’s death. On
one level it is a desire for a voyage into seeking, on another the vessel is a
metaphor for death in which he will travel to paradise and meet ‘Achilles
whom we knew’. Achilles here may well stand, for Hallam. This connection
becomes clearer when one recalls the fact that Tennyson had to wait for
two months more before the body of Hallam was brought to England on an
Italian ship. This perhaps also explains the reason for Ulysses’ desire to sail
towards the west.
Check Your Progress 2
i) Characterize Ulysses. What kind of person is he? (100 words)
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
ii) Find evidence in the poem to show that Ulysses’ desire for travel
represents more than a desire for adventure. ( 100 words)
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
(Check your answers with those given at the end of this Unit.)

1.6 ‘BREAK, BREAK, BREAK’

Here is a short lyric by Tennyson that also happens to be one of his most
famous short poems. We do not find any of Tennyson’s opinions expressed
here, only intense feeling. The earlier poems in this unit are narratives. Here
is an intensely personal poem written to express his grief over the sad death
of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. The sea is a powerful image that often
recurs in English literature. This is because, England being an island, the sea
is never far away. Let us imagine Tennyson standing on a beach watching
the waves of the sea crashing against the rocks and grey stones. Beaches in
England do not all have golden sands. In fact, many of them are full of grey
135

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 135 6/21/2021 11:41:03 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I pebbles. The poet’s heart is heavy with grief over his friend’s death and the
scene in front of him only evokes a deep feeling of loss over what has gone
forever. Let us now read the poem.
1.6.1 Poem
BREAK, BREAK, BREAK
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, 0 Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
0, well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
0, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But 0 for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still.
1.6.2 Glossary
Break, break, break : the dashing of the sea waves against the shore
utter : express
bay : part of the sea enclosed by a wide curve of the shore
stately : impressive
haven : harbour
1.6.3 Discussion
This is a simple poem expressing a deep sense of loss. The poet looks at the
waves of the sea dashing against the cold gray stones and his latent anguish
at the death of his friend Arthur Hallam surfaces once again. He wishes that
he can give adequate expression to the thoughts that well up within him.
The poet can see the fisherman’s children: a boy and his sister shouting as
they play. Tennyson also sees the young sailor boy singing in his boat as he
sails on the bay. The joyous and playful shouting of the brother and sister
and the cheerful song of the sailor are contrasted with the poet’s own grief.
Tennyson watches the impressive ships sailing towards their harbour below
the hill. This sense of a journey safely completed, only induces the poet to
acutely miss the soothing touch of the hand of his dead friend---a touch that
can never be experienced again. He longs to hear the voice of Hallam but
knows that it is forever silent!
Tennyson observes the waves crashing against the base of its rocks. The
sea seems to be in eternal motion, its waves continually dashing against
the shore. The continuity in nature is in sharp contrast to the cruel finality
of death and the passage of time. The pleasant days spent in the loving
company of his friend are gone forever and will never return.
In this poem, Tennyson works by the use of contrast. By contrasting the joy
of the scene around him, he is able to highlight his own grief and desolation.
136

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 136 6/21/2021 11:41:03 AM

 By depicting the continuous clashing of the waves against the shore by the Alfred Lord Tennyson-1
use of the simple ‘break, break, break’, Tennyson stresses the eternal aspect
of nature in contrast to the brevity of human life. The poem has an irregular
metre that moves slowly to capture the heavy rhythm of the poet’s grief.
The rhyme scheme is simple with the second line rhyming with the fourth
in each stanza.
Check Your Progress 3
i) Explain with reference to the context the following lines:
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................
..............................................................................................................

1.7 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, we have discussed:
●● that the Victorian Age was a period of political peace and economic
prosperity and imperial expansion. The consequent confidence of
the nation is reflected in the increased literary activity of its writers,
especially novelists and poets;
●● the life and works of Alfred Lord Tennyson;
●● extracts from ‘The Lotos-Eaters’ that exemplify the quality of
Tennyson’s narrative art and his interest in medieval stories. These
passages are celebrated for their verbal music and evocative imagery;
●● the poem ‘Ulysses’ which is also based, like ‘The Lotos-Eaters’, on
the adventures of the legendary Greek hero Ulysses. While in ‘The
Lotos-Eaters’, we have Ulysses’ mariners settling for a life of ease
and languor, in ‘Ulysses’ the dominant impulse is ‘to strive, to seek,
to find and not to yield’;
●● the short lyric ‘Break, Break. Break’ that is an intensely personal
expression of the poet’s grief over the untimely death of his friend
Arthur Hallam.

1.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
i) The theme of the passage is that human life is futile and if the end is
to be the grave then given the option one should choose a restful and
peaceful life rather than hardships.
ii) Alliteration and assonance combine with rhyme.
137

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 137 6/21/2021 11:41:03 AM

 Victorian Poetry-I Check Your Progress 2
i) We hope you included the following traits: Ulysses’ desire for a full
adventurous life; ambition to achieve more laurels; strong unyielding
spirit, a sense of his own destiny; unequalled heroism.
ii) The following expressions reveal his desire to search for knowledge
and a life of achievement rather than simple adventure:
‘How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unbumish’d, not to shine in use! ‘
‘And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought’.
‘Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done ... .
‘... for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset ... ‘
‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield’.
Check Your Progress 3
i) For answering any reference to the context question, you should give
the poets name, the name of the poem from where the lines have been
taken, the background of the poem and then the explanation of the
lines.

138

BEGC-110_3rd Proof.indb 138 6/21/2021 11:41:03 AM