Tennyson's responses are not balanced. The Lady of Shalott takes three steps toward the window and dies before she can reach Camelot. In contrast, Ulysses gives a seventy-line monologue about his reasons for leaving, entrusts the kingdom to his son, and sets sail toward a horizon that keeps moving away. One moment of looking results in everything lost. One act of departing is portrayed as heroic. The gender difference is hard to overlook, but the poems also differ in structure, voice, and their ideas about what freedom truly means.
When read together, these two poems pose Tennyson's most pointed question about who has the right to navigate the world and who bears the cost of that desire.
The Reader's Atlas · Compare
The Lady of ShalottUlysses
Alfred, Lord Tennyson published "The Lady of Shalott" in 1832 and "Ulysses" in 1842, yet the two poems seem to engage in a direct dialogue with each other.
Poets
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Years
1832
§01 The thesis
The Lady of Shalott & 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.
§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.
Axis
Poem A
The Lady of Shalott
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Poem B
Ulysses
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
01Speaker
Poem A · The Lady of Shalott
The Lady of Shalott has very little voice in her own poem. Tennyson tells her story from an external perspective, and her two direct lines — "I am half sick of shadows" and "The curse is come upon me" — feel more like stage directions than true self-expression. Ultimately, the last word about her is spoken by Lancelot: "She has a lovely face."
Poem B · Ulysses
Ulysses delivers every line of his poem in his own voice. He reflects on his past, gives his son a role, communicates with his crew, and establishes his own criteria for what makes a life meaningful. The reader is never privy to an external perspective — we only learn what Ulysses chooses to share about himself.
02Form
Poem A · The Lady of Shalott
The poem features a rigid nine-line stanza that incorporates an interlocking rhyme scheme, along with a refrain that repeats the words "Shalott" and "Camelot" in each stanza. This structure is both beautiful and stifling; the Lady is trapped in the pattern just as surely as she is confined to the tower.
Poem B · Ulysses
"Ulysses" is crafted in blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter that flows at the speaker's own rhythm. The lines can speed up, slow down, and even retrace their steps. This structure embodies the freedom that Ulysses is advocating for, even before he embarks on his journey.
03Image
Poem A · The Lady of Shalott
The central image features the mirror and the web — the Lady perceives the world solely as a reflection and turns it into woven art. When she finally gazes directly at Lancelot, "the mirror crack'd from side to side." This crack symbolizes both freedom and a death sentence, occurring simultaneously.
Poem B · Ulysses
The main image is the arch: "all experience is an arch wherethro' / Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades / For ever and for ever when I move." As he gets closer, the horizon pulls back. While the Lady's image represents a break, Ulysses' image signifies an endless possibility.
04Closing move
Poem A · The Lady of Shalott
The poem concludes with Lancelot’s quick, distracted tribute to the Lady. She has journeyed down the river, died while singing, and drifted into Camelot — yet the man whose death set everything in motion gives her only a fleeting thought before, it seems, he moves on. The ending is profoundly heartbreaking in its simplicity.
Poem B · Ulysses
"Ulysses" ends with one of the most famous lines in Victorian poetry: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." It's a call to action, a tribute to the living, a bold statement. The poem concludes at the moment of departure, just before anything can go awry — which is, naturally, part of its message.
§03 Synthesis & departure
The shared ground and the divergence
Shared
Both poems explore themes of confinement and the longing to break free. The Lady weaves in her tower, unable to gaze directly at the world; Ulysses sits by "this still hearth, among these barren crags," equally trapped in the life laid out for him. In both instances, the outside world is vibrant and alluring — Lancelot charging past on his war-horse, the "untravell'd world" whose edge continually recedes as Ulysses approaches it.
Additionally, both poems grapple with the idea of death. The Lady meets her end while striving to reach Camelot. Ulysses candidly states that "Death closes all" and acknowledges that his journey might conclude when "the gulfs will wash us down." Neither character is naive about the price of seeking freedom. Furthermore, both poems employ water as a symbol of transition — the river that bears the Lady's body, the "dark broad seas" that Ulysses encourages his crew to sail into. In both cases, the journey and death are intertwined as a singular event.
Where they diverge
The most striking difference is the voice. "The Lady of Shalott" is narrated in the third person — we only hear the Lady speak twice with brief cries: "I am half sick of shadows" and "The curse is come upon me." She is observed, named, and ultimately read like a label on the front of a boat. In contrast, "Ulysses" begins as a dramatic monologue with the opening line: "It little profits that an idle king..." Ulysses entirely controls his narrative.
This difference in form further emphasizes the contrast. The Lady's poem consists of tight, jingle-like stanzas with a repeating refrain — "The Lady of Shalott," "tower'd Camelot" — which confines her within a pattern, even as the words depict her. Ulysses, on the other hand, employs loose blank verse that can stretch and twist, mirroring his thought process. The Lady's curse remains unnamed and unexplained; Ulysses confronts only the clearly defined, natural limits of old age. She is punished for a fleeting glance, while he is celebrated for a lifetime of exploration.
§04 A reader's order of operations
Which to read first
If you've enjoyed "The Lady of Shalott" but haven't yet picked up "Ulysses," you should definitely give it a try for a striking contrast in narrative power. In "The Lady," the character is acted upon, whereas in "Ulysses," the character is the one taking action. Reading "Ulysses" right after will make the Lady’s silence resonate more profoundly.
On the other hand, if you started with "Ulysses," reading "The Lady of Shalott" will beautifully slow your pace. Tennyson's rhyme scheme and the poem's rich, almost overwhelming imagery are quite different from anything you find in "Ulysses." The story it tells—of someone who craved exactly what Ulysses has and ultimately perished for that desire—invites you to reconsider the older hero's confidence as something that deserves a second thought.
§05 Reader's questions
On The Lady of Shalott vs Ulysses, frequently asked
Answer
Yes, quite often. They show up side by side in Victorian literature courses and poetry anthologies, serving as companion pieces that explore themes of confinement, freedom, and gender. The stark difference between the Lady's fateful gaze and Ulysses' well-known departure makes them ideal for discussion.
Answer
"The Lady of Shalott" was released in 1832 as part of Tennyson's second collection, with "Ulysses" coming out in 1842. Tennyson composed "Ulysses" soon after losing his close friend Arthur Hallam in 1833, reflecting the grief and urgency he felt during that time.
Answer
From "The Lady of Shalott," the line "I am half sick of shadows" captures the Lady's sole moment of true self-expression before she takes action. In "Ulysses," the closing line, "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield," was later engraved at the Scott Polar Research Institute and referenced during the 2012 London Olympics.
Answer
Tennyson leaves the details unclear. The Lady herself "knows not what the curse may be" — she only understands that she must avoid looking directly at Camelot. This vagueness is intentional; the curse acts as an unnamed social or magical restriction rather than a distinct punishment with a clear source.
Answer
Yes. Ulysses is the Latin name for the Greek hero Odysseus. Tennyson references both Homer's *Odyssey* and Dante's *Inferno*, where Ulysses recounts a last, forbidden journey into the unknown — a detail that gives a darker twist to the poem's triumphant conclusion.
Answer
Tennyson gives Ulysses the more prominent and renowned voice, yet the poem about the Lady has sparked deeper critical discussion regarding its meaning. Many readers consider the Lady's fate to be more emotionally impactful, and the contrast in how each character is portrayed seems to be the very point Tennyson is highlighting.
Answer
Yes. Tennyson was inspired by an Italian novella, *Donna di Scalotta*, as well as the broader Arthurian legend. His character connects to Elaine of Astolat, who similarly succumbs to unrequited love for Lancelot in Malory's *Le Morte d'Arthur*. However, Tennyson's take highlights the curse and the creative process in ways that the original sources don’t.