To Live， To Explore

刘昌蕊 王晓利

【Abstract】The poem Ulysses written by poet Alfred Tennyson is an ambition monologue. Tennyson wrote it soon after his best friend Arthur H.Hallam passed away. He uses the character， Odysseus， in ancient Greek mythology for reference， and adds something new in his own poem， presenting a hero with great aspiration to us. The hero moulded by author is so energetic that when confronted with the suffering from age and the challenge form fate， he chooses to keep forging ahead and exploring.

【Key words】Alfred Tennyson； Ulysses； exploration

1. The Main Content of Ulysses

The poem can date back to the famous ancient Greek mythology Homer's Epic. The character is abstracted from the selections Iliad and Odysseus. Odysseus was the son of Laertes and was the ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca. He was also known by the Roman name Ulysses， a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and a hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. He is most famous for the ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War. After the Trojan War， he lead his people return his country， and irritated the Poseidon by stabling Mono-Eye giant Polyphemus. To punish him， Poseidon made him drift on the sea for 10 years， experienced numerous difficulties and dangers and reunioned with his family after 10 years.

The poem is the continue of this story. Odysseus is tired of his ordinary life and misses his past experience of fighting with nature， so he want to sail again. The first part is his complain about his current leisure situation， meanwhile he expresses his palimnesis about the past. Then he cries out his desire to sailing again. The second part is the discription about Odysseus hand over his throne to his son， the third part is the passionate speech for his new exploration to himself and his sailors.

2.The Analysis of the Theme—Exploration

Each aspect of exploration has some symbolic images， and each image symbolizes different things. The sea image in the poetry appeared at least four times. It symbolizes the endless and mysterious world. World is just like the sea， there are so many things are waiting to be explored， it is so mysterious that everyone wants to know more about it. It can evoke the enthusiasm for people to explore it， and that is the charm of the sea， or to say， the world.

Another reappeared image is the arch. Odysseus says like this：“Yet all experience is an arch wherethro ，Gleams that untravell'd world， whose margin fades. ” The arch here symbolizes a limitation of his knowledge， and his ambition to go out of the door， break through his own limitation and go into a undiscovered world. Odysseus wants to make the “gleams of the untravelled world out of the arch” fade constantly when he move on exploring.

In the sixth stanza Odysseus says：“The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks”. Here the lights symbolizes his persistent will of poet himself. Tennyson wrote this poem in his most unsuccessful period. He was suffering double strikes then， his best friend passed away， and he failed to publish his second anthology. The poem Ulysses is finished in this situation. Poet write this to express his heartfelt wishes to pick up his courage and rise to his own occasion. So he use the light to remind himself that there is always a clear direction in his exploration and he wont lose himself.

Another image is the thunder and sunshine. The thunder symbolizes those difficulties in his life， the sunshine symbolizes the success and happy moments in his life. It can be thunder storm or sunny， the weather is unpredictable， just like the success and fail situations in ones life. So hed rather accept the varieties “with a frolic welcome attitude” than depress in difficulties. His spirit for endless self-shaping， self-conquering， and self-exploring is stand vividly revealed on the paper.

3. Conclusion

This monologue poem written by Tennyson is a creative of the old myth. Tennyson added emotion about himself and created a lofty aspirations hero. Also， it is an encouragement to poet himself. This poem records Tennysons spiritual journey， through this poem people can know clearly about the heros indefatigable exploration spirit， the poem also reflects the poets ambition to go ahead through all the difficulties， and life is certainly a process of pursuing， discovering， and fighting.