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The Reader's Atlas · Compare · Modernist Apocalypses

GerontionUlysses

Put "Gerontion" and "Ulysses" side by side, and you’ll find two striking portrayals of old age—each offering a completely different perspective on the same question: what do you do when your best years are behind you?

  • Poets

    T. S. Eliot / Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  • Years

    1920

  • Chapter

    Modernist Apocalypses

§01 The thesis

Gerontion & Ulysses

A reader's case for putting these two side by side — what each carries, and what they argue when they sit on the same page.

Put "Gerontion" and "Ulysses" side by side, and you’ll find two striking portrayals of old age—each offering a completely different perspective on the same question: what do you do when your best years are behind you? Alfred, Lord Tennyson published "Ulysses" in 1842, pouring his grief over the loss of his friend Arthur Hallam into his writing. T. S. Eliot released "Gerontion" in 1920, a year after the First World War had dismantled the last remnants of the nineteenth-century belief in heroic action. Both poems are dramatic monologues delivered by men acutely aware of their dwindling time. They are enveloped by images of wind, sea, and fading light. Yet, Tennyson's Ulysses transforms this awareness into a rallying cry—"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield"—while Eliot's Gerontion reframes it as a lament: "I have lost my passion: why should I want to keep it / Since what is kept must be adulterated?" One poem reaches out toward the future; the other retreats into despair. Together, they create a profound dialogue on what it means to age heroically and whether true heroism is even attainable in a modern mindset.

§02 The dialectic axes

The two poems on four axes

Each axis isolates one specific vector — speaker, form, image, closing move — and reads the two poems against each other on that single dimension.

01Speaker

Poem A · Gerontion

Gerontion remains intentionally unnamed and unmythologized. He is simply an old man living in a rented house — lacking a heroic past, famous accomplishments, or a crew. His identity hinges on absence: he wasn't at the hot gates, did not engage in battle, and has lost his sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. He embodies everyman, stripped of all that defines him.

Poem B · Ulysses

Ulysses embodies the rich legacy of Homeric legend. He is a king, a traveler, and a man who has savored the thrill of battle at the windswept shores of Troy, becoming, as he puts it, "a name." His credibility as a speaker comes from an exceptional history, which he harnesses to inspire his future.
02Form

Poem A · Gerontion

Eliot writes in free verse, with lines that don't follow a specific rhythm. Sentences often cut off in the middle, and thoughts accumulate and fade away, giving the poem a sense of spiraling rather than advancing. This fragmentation is where the meaning lies.

Poem B · Ulysses

Tennyson uses disciplined blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter—that builds tension as the poem progresses. This structure reflects the will that Ulysses advocates: it's controlled and intentional, leading up to the well-known closing lines.
03Image

Poem A · Gerontion

Gerontion's main themes revolve around dryness, decay, and entrapment, featuring elements like rocks, moss, stonecrop, merds, a wilderness of mirrors, and fractured atoms. The only image of moisture — rain — is depicted as something anticipated but never experienced. The sea at the conclusion doesn't offer freedom; it merely scatters.

Poem B · Ulysses

Ulysses evokes oceanic imagery filled with depth and motion: drifting waves, resonant expanses, echoing channels, the mournful abyss, the pools of all the western stars. Here, water invites rather than consumes. Even the darkness — "there gloom the dark broad seas" — is something to dive into, not a force that engulfs you.
04Closing move

Poem A · Gerontion

The poem concludes with a shift into complete abstraction: "Tenants of the house, / Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season." The speaker diminishes himself to just a thought — and a cold, lifeless one at that. This represents a self-erasure rather than a proper conclusion.

Poem B · Ulysses

The poem wraps up with one of the most famous rallying cries in English poetry: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." This final gesture is bold, communal, and challenging. Ulysses doesn't just reflect on himself — he commands his crew and, by extension, engages the reader.

§03 Synthesis & departure

The shared ground and the divergence

Shared

Both poems feature interior monologues delivered in the first person by elderly men who grapple with the disparity between their past selves and their current identities. They express this gap through vivid physical imagery: Ulysses rests by a "still hearth, among these barren crags," while Gerontion occupies "a draughty house / Under a windy knob." Wind permeates both poems, symbolizing exposure, restlessness, and the gradual fading of life. Each speaker is consumed by reflections on what time and experience have taken from them. The sea emerges as a powerful final image: Ulysses moves toward it as his goal, whereas Gerontion is "driven on the Trades / To a sleepy corner" where he is ultimately engulfed. Moreover, both poems portray knowledge as a burden. Ulysses yearns to pursue knowledge "like a sinking star, / Beyond the utmost bound of human thought," yet this quest has stripped him of his home and tranquility. Gerontion questions, "After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" — for him, knowledge is less about discovery and more akin to a wound. The structural similarities between the two poems accentuate their differences even further.

Where they diverge

The most noticeable difference lies in posture. Ulysses is an agent, while Gerontion is a patient. Ulysses declares, "I will drink / Life to the lees" and gives commands: "Push off, and sitting well in order smite / The sounding furrows." In contrast, Gerontion states, "I was neither at the hot gates / Nor fought in the warm rain." His key remark consists of a list of things he never experienced. Tennyson uses blank verse that builds toward a rhetorical high point — the final lines have the rhythm of a speech designed to be memorized and recited. Eliot, however, intentionally breaks from that tradition. His syntax twists and collapses; the procession of named individuals (Mr. Silvero, Hakagawa, Madame de Tornquist) appears without context and disappears just as abruptly. While Tennyson's structure creates a sense of momentum, Eliot's conveys a sense of dissipation. And while Ulysses concludes with a collective determination — "we are," "we are," "we are" — Gerontion finishes in solitude: "Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season." One poem serves as a rallying cry; the other reads like an autopsy.

§04 A reader's order of operations

Which to read first

If "Ulysses" is your starting point, then "Gerontion" should be your next stop—it feels like Eliot is intentionally pushing back against everything Tennyson's poem stands for. While Ulysses enjoys his grand farewell, Gerontion takes that farewell away and probes what remains when our drive to strive has been worn down by history and self-awareness. It's a tougher read, but it casts "Ulysses" in a light that reveals both its beauty and its vulnerability once you’ve engaged with it. If "Gerontion" were your first encounter, "Ulysses" would feel like a breath of fresh air—a reminder that the heroic stance Eliot critiques was genuinely captivating before it was deconstructed.

§05 Reader's questions

On Gerontion vs Ulysses, frequently asked

Q.01Are 'Gerontion' and 'Ulysses' often taught together?

Answer

Yes, often — particularly in courses that explore Victorian and Modernist poetry together. This pairing allows instructors to illustrate how Eliot and his contemporaries were responding to the assertive rhetorical style that Tennyson exemplifies.

Q.02Which poem came first?

Answer

Tennyson's "Ulysses" was penned in 1833, just after the death of Arthur Hallam, and it saw publication in 1842. In contrast, Eliot's "Gerontion" came out in 1920 as part of his collection *Ara Vos Prec*. That's a gap of nearly eighty years between the two works.

Q.03What is the most quoted line in each poem?

Answer

From "Ulysses": "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" — this phrase has inspired many, appearing as a motto at the 2012 London Olympics and in numerous graduation speeches. From "Gerontion": "After such knowledge, what forgiveness?" is the most referenced line among critics, but "History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors" is a close contender.

Q.04Is Eliot's 'Gerontion' a response to Tennyson's 'Ulysses'?

Answer

There's no clear proof that Eliot wrote it intentionally as a response, but the thematic similarities are striking. Most critics view the two poems as engaging in a dialogue about old age, will, and the price of knowledge.

Q.05Who is Gerontion? Is he based on a real person?

Answer

No — the name originates from the Greek term for "little old man," and the character is completely fictional. Eliot employs him as a representation of post-war European fatigue instead of as a depiction of a specific person.

Q.06Is Tennyson's Ulysses meant to be admired or criticized?

Answer

Readers have been debating this for more than a century. Some interpret the poem as a straightforward celebration of the restless heroic spirit. Others, like W. H. Auden, see Ulysses as irresponsible and reckless for abandoning his kingdom and leading old sailors to their likely deaths. The poem accommodates both interpretations, which is a big reason for its lasting appeal.

Q.07Why does Eliot's poem include so many obscure named characters like Mr. Silvero and Hakagawa?

Answer

They reflect the disjointed, diverse modern world that has taken the place of clear religious and cultural traditions. They come and go without reason, mirroring how Gerontion perceives history — as a collection of fleeting impressions that never quite come together into a coherent meaning.

§06 More from this chapter

The center cannot hold

10 comparisons in this chapter

See all chapters →