"Ulysses" by Lord Alfred Tennyson

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“Ulysses” by Lord Alfred Tennyson

“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
For ever and for ever when I move.
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…”

“Ulysses” is a poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson which was written after Tennyson learned about his friend’s death, and published in Poems in 1842. The given poem and the ten lines presented above are a good example of how form and certain concepts the author uses help him to reflect the meaning of the work and make it clear and easy-understandable.

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These ten lines speak about living life as fully as possibly and point out the connection of a man with everything and everyone he has ever seen or met. Experience gained during the long life is compared to an arch through which one sees a lot of places unseen and undiscovered yet – the more one sees and experiences, the sharper he understands that there is still much more to see and live through.

As a whole, the character of Ulysses is used to symbolize the people of the Victorian age. Ulysses got educated through his adventures which also disillusioned ...

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