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The Reader's Atlas · Compare · Across the Atlantic

UlyssesThe Lake Isle of Innisfree

Two poems about leaving. That’s the simplest reason to pair Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s "Ulysses" with W.

  • Poets

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson / W. B. Yeats

  • Years

    1890

  • Chapter

    Across the Atlantic

§01 The thesis

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.

However, the similarities start to fade once you consider who is speaking and what they are doing. Tennyson's Ulysses is a king, a seasoned veteran of Troy, whose entire identity revolves around movement and conquest. His departure is public and rhetorical, directed at a crew of old warriors waiting at the dock. In contrast, Yeats's speaker is anonymous and solitary, standing on a gray city pavement — and, importantly, he never actually leaves. One poem captures a heroic departure; the other portrays a domestic longing that remains rooted in the body. These two poems illustrate the contrast between a grand exit and a quiet yearning: they share a structure of escape but carry entirely different meanings.

§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 · Ulysses

Ulysses is a legendary figure with a name — the king of Ithaca, a survivor of Troy, and the husband of Penelope. His identity is closely tied to his history, and that history lends weight to his words. Though he is old, he speaks as if age is merely another challenge to conquer.

Poem B · The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Yeats's speaker is unnamed and lacks a backstory or a heroic résumé. He is just an individual in a city who yearns for a quieter place. This anonymity is intentional — the longing he expresses is designed to resonate on a universal level, rather than being portrayed as something grand.
02Form

Poem A · Ulysses

Tennyson employs blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter, flowing for 70 lines without any stanza breaks. This form fits a man who can't help but keep going — the lines continuously push ahead, seldom pausing, culminating in that well-known closing cadence.

Poem B · The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Yeats crafts the poem using three four-line stanzas that follow a relaxed yet consistent ABAB rhyme scheme. The structure feels contained and almost musical, fitting for a piece that leans more towards a lingering daydream than a bold statement — it's something the speaker revisits rather than takes action upon.
03Image

Poem A · Ulysses

The main images in 'Ulysses' evoke both the ocean and the cosmos: 'scudding drifts,' 'the ringing plains of windy Troy,' stars descending beyond the horizon, and the depths that 'moan round with many voices.' Everything directs our gaze outward and upward, toward the immense and the mysterious.

Poem B · The Lake Isle of Innisfree

The images in 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' are intimate and detailed: clay and wattles, a hive, the sound of crickets, the flutter of a linnet's wings, and the gentle lapping of lake water against the shore. Yeats creates his vision of escape using simple, tangible materials — the kind of setting you can almost reach out and touch.
04Closing move

Poem A · Ulysses

Ulysses concludes with an inspiring call to his crew: 'To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.' This message is bold, confrontational, and directed outward. The poem wraps up with a focus on shared determination rather than individual emotions.

Poem B · The Lake Isle of Innisfree

'Innisfree' concludes with a shift inward: 'I hear it in the deep heart's core.' The speaker remains in place. This final line takes the poem from a physical landscape to a personal one, placing the island not on any geographical map but within the speaker himself.

§03 Synthesis & departure

The shared ground and the divergence

Shared

Both poems begin with a speaker feeling trapped in their current situation. Tennyson's Ulysses describes his home life as "dull" — he feels like he is rusting, "unburnish'd, not to shine in use." Meanwhile, Yeats's speaker hears the lake water "in the deep heart's core" even as he stands on city pavement. This contrast between a confined present and a yearned-for elsewhere propels both poems forward. Both also rely on the future tense as a source of motivation. "I will drink / Life to the lees," Ulysses declares. The Innisfree speaker echoes this with "I will arise and go now" — and repeats it twice. This repeated "will" in Yeats reflects the determined declarations in Tennyson; it conveys a sense of resolve even though it ultimately expresses longing. In both instances, nature represents the ultimate escape. Tennyson directs his hero toward stars, seas, and mythical islands. Yeats creates his vision of freedom with images of bean rows, cricket song, linnet wings, and morning mist. Both poets employ vivid sensory imagery from nature to make the imagined place feel more real and vibrant than the speaker's current circumstances.

Where they diverge

The key difference lies in whether the departure actually occurs. Ulysses concludes at the dock, right in the middle of his speech, with the ship ready and the crew gathered. His departure feels imminent, tangible, and collective. In contrast, Yeats's speaker remains on the pavement—the lake exists only in his imagination. The poem is more of a fantasy than a practical plan. Scale is another factor that sets them apart. Ulysses aims to sail "beyond the utmost bound of human thought," seeking the Happy Isles and the chance to see Achilles. His ambition is grand and outward-looking. On the other hand, the speaker in "Innisfree" desires nine bean rows, a hive, and a life of solitude in a "bee-loud glade." His aspirations are intentionally modest, inward, and domestic. The structure of the poems emphasizes this divide. Tennyson employs blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter—which lends Ulysses's speech a powerful, unstoppable momentum, as if he cannot be contested. Yeats, meanwhile, uses a loose ballad-like stanza with a consistent rhyme scheme, giving "Innisfree" a softer, more song-like quality, akin to a lullaby rather than a battle cry. One poem propels forward, while the other revisits the same wistful refrain.

§04 A reader's order of operations

Which to read first

If "Ulysses" is the poem you're familiar with, check out "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" next for a version of longing that feels quiet and unresolved. While Tennyson offers you energy and grand language, Yeats provides stillness and a deep ache — along with the raw honesty of a speaker who acknowledges he hasn't moved on yet. If "Innisfree" was your first encounter, "Ulysses" will hit you like a loud jolt. It shares the same desire to escape, but Tennyson transforms it into a public address, almost theatrical. This contrast shows how the ambition of a speaker can shift the emotional impact of a feeling that might otherwise seem familiar.

§05 Reader's questions

On Ulysses vs The Lake Isle of Innisfree, frequently asked

Answer

They frequently show up together in comparative literature courses, especially in sections focused on Victorian and Modernist poetry or the themes of escape and identity. This pairing is effective because the contrast is clear enough to be instructive without being overly apparent.

§06 More from this chapter

British inheritance, American answer

7 comparisons in this chapter

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