Ulysses Departing

Discussion Questions: Ulysses Departing by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1. Close Reading — Voice & Tone: The speaker's tone in Ulysses Departing is both defiant and melancholic. How do these two seemingly contradictory emotional registers coexist throughout the poem, and what does their tension reveal about Ulysses's true state of mind? (AQA AO2: analyse language and tone; AP close reading: character voice)

1. Close Reading — Symbolism: The poem employs several recurring symbols — the quiet hearth, the rusting sword, and the sinking star. How does each symbol work differently to convey Ulysses's attitude toward inaction, and which do you find most persuasive in making his case for departure? (AQA AO2: imagery and symbolism; IB guiding question: how does the author's use of literary devices shape meaning?)

1. Theme — Identity: Ulysses defines himself almost entirely through his experiences and journeys rather than through his role as king, husband, or father. What does the poem suggest about the relationship between action and identity, and how might a reader who values duty over adventure challenge his self-conception? (IB guiding question: how is a sense of self constructed in the poem?)

1. Theme — Mortality: Ulysses is fully aware that this final voyage may lead to his death, yet he sets sail regardless. How does the poem reframe mortality — not as something to be feared or avoided, but as a context that gives urgency to living? In what ways does the reference to the Happy Isles complicate or deepen this reading? (AQA AO3: context of mortality; AP thematic analysis)

1. Theme — Ambition & the Limits of Knowledge: The arch of experience symbol suggests that the more one learns, the more one perceives there is still left to know. How does Ulysses Departing present ambition and the pursuit of knowledge — as a noble human drive, a personal obsession, or something more troubling? (IB guiding question: what is the poem's attitude toward human aspiration?)

1. Character & Relationship — Telemachus: The one tender moment in the poem is Ulysses's reflection on his son Telemachus, whom he praises for his patience and sense of duty — qualities Ulysses himself conspicuously lacks. What does this contrast between father and son add to the poem, and does Ulysses's warm yet distanced tone toward Telemachus make him more or less sympathetic as a speaker? (AQA AO1: personal response and interpretation; AP character analysis)

1. Historical & Biographical Context: Tennyson wrote Ulysses Departing just days after the sudden death of his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam, and he later described it as expressing "the need of going forward and braving the struggle of life." How does knowing this biographical context alter or enrich your reading of the poem's restless defiance? Does it change whether you read the poem as triumphant, grief-stricken, or both? (AQA AO3: biographical and historical context)

1. Intertextual Context — Homer and Dante: Tennyson draws on both Homer's Odyssey and Dante's Inferno but reshapes the Ulysses figure for his own purposes. Based on the analysis, how does Tennyson's Ulysses differ from the classical hero who longs to return home, and what does this reimagining suggest about Tennyson's own thematic concerns? (IB guiding question: how does the poem engage with and transform its literary sources?)

1. Structural & Contextual Reading — Victorian Values: Published in 1842, the poem entered a Victorian cultural debate about progress, ambition, and the meaning of a worthwhile life. To what extent can Ulysses Departing be read as a Victorian statement about striving and self-improvement, and in what ways might Ulysses's self-centred restlessness actually challenge or unsettle those same Victorian ideals? (AQA AO3: Victorian context; AP contextual analysis)

1. Authorial Intent & Personal Response: Tennyson was only 24 years old when he gave voice to this aged, world-weary speaker. What is the effect of a young poet writing so convincingly in the voice of someone confronting the end of life? And ultimately, does the poem succeed in persuading you that a life of relentless striving is more meaningful than one of stillness and contentment — or does it leave that question genuinely open? (AQA AO1: personal and evaluative response; IB guiding question: how effectively does the poem achieve its purpose?)