and see the great Achilles, whom we knew. (56–64)
The speaker's language is modest and forceful, and it expresses Ulysses' conflicting moods as he searches for a connection between his past and future. There is often a marked variance between the sentiment of Ulysses' words and the sounds that express them. For example, the poem's insistent iambic pentameter is often interrupted by spondees (metrical feet consisting of two long syllables), which slow down the movement of the poem; the labouring language casts into doubt the honesty of Ulysses' sentiments. A prime example of this can be seen in lines 19–21 where the poem states:
“Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move.”
The poem's seventy lines of blank verse are presented as a dramatic monologue which involves a single character giving an extended speech at a critical moment to a silent listener, and is used to characterise the speaker. This form of poetry was favoured by many of the poets in the Victorian period. It is not necessarily clear to whom Ulysses is speaking, if anyone, and from what location. Some see the verse turning from a soliloquy to a public address, as Ulysses seems to speak to himself in the first movement, then to turn to an audience as he introduces his son, and then to relocate to the seashore where he addresses his mariners.
Ulysses moves through four emotional stages that are self-revelatory, not ironic: beginning with his rejection of the barren life to which he has returned in Ithaca, he then fondly recalls and reminisces about his heroic past, recognizes the validity of Telemachus' method of governing, and with these thoughts plans another journey.
There also appears to be a notable influence of Shakespeare within two passages of the play. In the early movement, the savage race "That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me" in line5 echoes Hamlet's soliloquy: "What is a man, if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more."
The second poem that we will aim to discuss is the” Journey of the Magi” which is a poem written after Eliot's conversion to Christianity and confirmation in the Church of England in 1927 and published in Ariel Poems in 1930.There are at least two formal elements of the poem that are intriguing. The first is that the poem maintains Eliot's long habit of using the dramatic monologue, a form he inherited and adapted from Robert Browning, a form we have also seen in the poem mentioned above. The speaker of the poem appears to be in a form of agitation and speaks to the reader directly. His revelations are accidental and born out of his own emotional distress. The narrator is an elderly speaker, someone who is world weary, reflective, and sad. The narrator also bears witness to the historical change taking place and who seeks to rise above his historical moment, a man who, despite material wealth and prestige, has lost his spiritual bearing, an emotion which we have all felt at some point of our lives.
The second formal element within the poem is that the poem has a number of symbolist elements within it. This is where an entire philosophical position is summed up by the manifestation of a single image. For example, the narrator says that on the journey they saw "three trees against a low sky"; the single image of the three trees implies the historical future (the crucifixion) and the spiritual truth of the future (the skies lowered and heaven opened). These features are not "symbols" in the usual sense. They are physical features that contain what the Symbolists would see as a transhistorical truth. This is notable in that Eliot, although using symbols throughout his poetic career, did not write in a Symbolist manner as often in the middle of his career, as he had moved instead toward a more fragmentary view of human perception of truth.
The poem itself is an account of the journey from the point of view of one of the magi. It picks up Eliot's consistent theme of alienation and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that has changed. The poem is, instead of mourning, a celebration of the wonders of the journey, largely a complaint about a journey that was painful and tedious. The speaker says that a voice was always whispering in their ears as they went that "this was all folly". The magus seems generally unimpressed by the infant, and yet he realizes that the incarnation has changed everything. He asks,
". . . Were we led all that way for Birth or Death?"
The birth of the Christ was the death of the world of magic, astrology, and paganism. The speaker, recalling his journey in old age, says that after that birth his world had died, and he had little left to do but wait for his own death.
Tennyson’s grief of losing his dear friend is reflected in Ulysses and the poem displays his desire to recapture the past and to recapture the time when Hallam was alive. Ulysses shares all the same grievances that Tennyson did, including dissatisfaction, desire for change, nostalgia, and the effects of age. In this way, he uses the poem as a way of expressing his feelings and misfortunes, but also as a way of showing that he had a desire to die. Ulysses is described to have had an extremely successful past life. He was a handsome man in his prime and endured many exciting adventures. Ulysses describes in line 16 how he ‘drunk delight of battle’ with his peers. He talks in line 59of ‘souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me’ and the use of rhyme suggests the harmony of his relationship with his peers. This explains that he had endured much suffering and the use of the word ‘thought’ introduces the point that he was also a great thinker; he was not only practical with his hands, but also good with his mind. In this poem Alfred Tennyson explains the dangers of being overly ambitious; Ulysses is used to describe how a man can become restless and impulsive with over-ambition. Ulysses, however, describes, and to some extent celebrates the indomitable spirit of man.
The themes that Eliot deals with in “Journey of the Magi” are part of humankind’s continual search for truth. The poem uses imagery of light/warmth and dark/cold for contrast. The first five lines of this poem describe a journey, and from the poem’s title, we know that those travelling are Magi (The word Magi is plural; the singular form is Magus.) The use of cumulative phrases, the stops and starts of the punctuation, the informal syntax, and the use of alliteration set the pattern for the first section of the poem giving us an indication of what to expect from the poem.
Both poems use dramatic monologue to almost tell the story rather than the traditional method of poetry in which the reader is engaged and almost carried through. Both poems also tell the tale or journey of a man, which are often filled with allegoric terms. Although the context of the poem differ entirely one can conclude that they represent the state of mind of the composer of the poem. an example being Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Ulysses’ which can be assumed to be based upon the emotions of losing his dear friend and remembering times past that were once youthful and full of merriment. T. S. Eliot’s poem however titled ‘Journey of the Magi’ is about a religious journey and reflects upon that of T. S. Eliot’s own religious choices. Elliot also emphasizes the speaker’s doubt over the death and rebirth in the poem, which suggests both that he indeed, wanted another death in order to bring about complete spiritual renewal. To conclude, the poem Journey of the Magi touches on the journey of the human spirit and their endeavour for perfection. It delivers a message: that we are all involved in the process of perfection of self, and sombrely, one can only reach this place of utter satisfaction through death. The poem “Ulysses’ by Alfred Tennyson is one that is often reminiscent and looks to regain the emotions and success of the past rather than look to the future. The character longs to return to the past and aims to settle his accounts in the present by allowing his son to take over the throne although he believes him to not be as adequate. He arranges for all important things to be taken off in his absence which almost represent the character arranging his own funeral. The character longs for a time that cannot be regained and symbolically calls out to his mariners to join him to set sail again. Perhaps to never return, thus symbolically representing death where the character will be at the peace that he longs for. The representation of the need to be at eternal peace through the journey of death is evident is both poems and clearly reflect the mindset of both poets as the journey of which they were personally experiencing at the time of composure.
