Put "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by W. B. Yeats side by side, and the first thing you notice is that both speakers are on the verge of leaving. Tennyson's Ulysses is a legendary king standing at a dock, rallying his old crew for one last journey into the unknown. In contrast, Yeats's speaker is an unnamed man on a gray city pavement, dreaming of rowing out to a small Irish island to build a cabin and grow beans. One departure is mythic and outward-looking; the other is personal and almost entirely introspective. Yet both poems are fueled by the same restless dissatisfaction with their current circumstances, using the act of leaving to explore what it means to truly live. The scale of heroism is vastly different, but the emotional drive is the same: I cannot stay here. I have to go. That shared urgency is what makes these two poems resonate together — while the difference lies in whether the self expands or contracts when it finally finds its resting place.
The Reader's Atlas · Two poems
Ulyssesvs.The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Put "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by W. B. Yeats side by side, and the first thing you notice is that both speakers are on the verge of leaving. Tennyson's Ulysses is a legendary king standing at a dock, rallying his old crew for one last journey into the unknown.
§01 Why these two together
Ulysses & The Lake Isle of Innisfree
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 What they share, where they part
The shared ground and the divergence
Shared
Both poems use the first person and are structured as declarations of intent. Tennyson's Ulysses proclaims, "I will drink / Life to the lees," while Yeats's speaker begins with "I will arise and go now." This similarity in phrasing is intentional — both poets use the future tense "I will" to transform their longing into determination. They also depict the present location as a form of death-in-life. Ulysses describes his hearth as "still" and his crags as "barren"; Yeats's speaker stands on "pavements gray." In both cases, the current setting feels dull and lifeless, while the imagined destination vibrates with sensory richness. Both poems emerged during times of deep personal unrest — Tennyson wrote "Ulysses" shortly after the death of his close friend Arthur Hallam in 1833, and Yeats penned "Innisfree" in 1888 while feeling dissatisfied in London. Thus, grief and dislocation serve as the hidden forces driving both departures.
Where they diverge
The most significant difference lies in scale. Ulysses aims to sail "beyond the utmost bound of human thought" — his destination is essentially limitless, a horizon that constantly moves away. In contrast, Yeats's speaker seeks a cabin, nine bean rows, and a beehive. One man is escaping toward legend; the other is retreating toward tranquility. This distinction in destinations influences everything else. Tennyson's poem reads like a public address, first to himself, then to Telemachus, and finally to his crew — it builds in rhetorical strength and concludes with a famous battle cry. Yeats's poem feels intimate, almost whispered, and it ends not with a departure, but with the realization that the speaker hasn't left at all: he remains on the pavement, hearing the lake only "in the deep heart's core." Ulysses sets off. Yeats's speaker merely intends to. One poem explores the desire to act; the other delves into the divide between yearning and action — and it's within that divide that the true emotion resides.
§03 Side by side
The two poems on four axes
Poem A
Ulysses
Poem B
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
01 · Speaker
Ulysses carries a name steeped in myth and history. As a king and a veteran of Troy, his identity is shaped by his vast experiences. In the poem, his authority stems from all that he has accomplished, and his desire to leave is closely tied to the person he has become.
Yeats's speaker is unnamed and lacks a personal history or heroic achievements. He is just an individual on a city street. His authority stems not from his actions but from the depth of his emotions — the sound of lake water in his chest, even amidst the noise of traffic and concrete.
02 · Form
"Ulysses" is a dramatic monologue written in blank verse, specifically unrhymed iambic pentameter. This structure allows Tennyson to create long, flowing sentences that gain momentum. The poem's rhetoric mirrors the rising waves of the sea it depicts, culminating in the renowned closing lines.
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree" features three compact quatrains that follow a loose ballad-like rhyme scheme (ABAB). Although the lines appear longer than they are, the stanza structure maintains a contained, song-like quality—fitting for a work that's fundamentally a personal incantation rather than a public address.
03 · Destination
Ulysses's destination is intentionally ambiguous and lofty: beyond the sunset, past the western stars, perhaps to the legendary Happy Isles where heroes go after death. The journey itself holds greater significance than any particular location. Reaching the destination would miss the whole point.
Innisfree is a real place—a small island in Lough Gill, County Sligo, Ireland. Yeats describes it with vivid, everyday details: clay and wattles, nine bean rows, a hive, a cricket, a linnet. This focus on specifics is essential. It’s not just a symbol; it’s a tangible location that the speaker can envision, right down to the buzzing of the bees.
04 · Closing move
Tennyson concludes with a powerful rallying cry — "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" — which sounds like a line from a monument. The poem opens up to action and community, and the last image depicts a group of old men setting off together.
Yeats concludes on an introspective note. The last line — "I hear it in the deep heart's core" — brings the poem back into the speaker's chest. The departure hasn’t occurred. The poem ends by highlighting the gap between where the speaker is and where he wishes to be, which has been the central theme all along.
§04 Which to read first
A reader's order of operations
If you enjoyed "Ulysses" and its sense of heroic journey, check out "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" for a different perspective: what if the destination you’re heading toward is small, peaceful, and tangible instead of grand and limitless? Yeats reveals that longing can resonate just as deeply in a whisper as in a shout. If you found your way here through Yeats, dive into Tennyson to experience what departure truly feels like when the speaker actually leaves — and to appreciate the contrast between a poem that concludes with a door swinging open and one where the speaker hasn't yet reached that door.
§05 Reader's questions
On Ulysses vs The Lake Isle of Innisfree, frequently asked
Answer
They frequently show up together in comparative literature courses, often revolving around themes of escape, departure, or the restless self. This pairing is effective because the two poems present contrasting ideas about what one is escaping toward.
Answer
Tennyson penned "Ulysses" in 1833, and it was published in 1842. Yeats composed "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" in 1888, with its publication in 1890. There's about fifty years between the two, and it's likely that Yeats was familiar with Tennyson's poetry.
Answer
From "Ulysses," the closing line is: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" — it was even engraved at the 2012 London Olympics. From "Innisfree," the last line of the poem is: "I hear it in the deep heart's core," but the opening line, "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree," is a strong contender.
Answer
This is one of the most debated questions about the poem. The ship is present, the mariners are gathered, and the speech resembles a pre-departure address — yet Ulysses never actually steps aboard in the poem. Some readers interpret the ending as a true launch, while others see it as the old man's impressive self-persuasion.
Answer
Yeats recalled standing on Fleet Street in London, feeling homesick for Ireland, when he spotted a small fountain in a shop window. The sound of the water reminded him of Lough Gill, and that's when the poem began to take shape, born from that feeling of being out of place. The pavement mentioned in the final stanza reflects his own experiences.
Answer
Both are based on the same source — Homer's Odyssey — but Tennyson's poem and Joyce's novel stand alone as distinct works. Joyce's Ulysses reinterprets the Odyssey, setting it in a single day in Dublin, while Tennyson's poem explores the aftermath of the Odyssey, depicting the hero's restlessness at home.
Answer
"Ulysses" feels more optimistic on the surface, concluding with a defiant, forward-looking sentiment. In contrast, "Innisfree" carries a bittersweet tone; the speaker's longing is beautiful, yet they never actually depart. Whether this is seen as pessimistic or simply a more honest reflection is up to the reader's interpretation.