Ulysses Essay

Ulysses (Odysseus) declares that there is little point in his staying home by this still hearth with his old wife, doling out rewards and punishments for the unnamed masses who live in his kingdom.Still speaking to himself he proclaims that he cannot rest from travel but feels compelled to live to the fullest and swallow every last drop of life. He has enjoyed all his experiences as a sailor who travels the seas, and he considers himself a symbol for everyone who wanders and roams the earth. His travels have exposed him to many different types of people and ways of living. They have also exposed him to the delight of battle while fighting the Trojan War with his men. Ulysses declares that his travels and encounters have shaped who he is: I am a part of all that I have met, he asserts. And it is only when he is traveling that the margin of the globe that he has not yet traversed shrink and fade, and cease to goad him.

Ulysses declares that it is boring to stay in one place, and that to remain stationary is to rust rather than to shine; to stay in one place is to pretend that all there is to life is the simple act of breathing, whereas he knows that in fact life contains much novelty, and he longs to encounter this. His spirit yearns constantly for new experiences that will broaden his horizons; he wishes to follow knowledge like a sinking star and forever grow in wisdom and in learning.

Ulysses now speaks to an unidentified audience concerning his son Telemachus, who will act as his successor while the great hero resumes his travels: he says, This is my son, mine own Telemachus, to whom I leave the scepter and the isle. He speaks highly but also patronizingly of his sons capabilities as a ruler, praising his prudence, dedication, and devotion to the gods. Telemachus will do his work of governing the island while Ulysses will do his work of traveling the seas: He works his work, I mine.

In the final stanza, Ulysses addresses the mariners with whom he has worked, traveled, and weathered lifes storms over many years. He declares that although he and they are old, they still have the potential to do something noble and honorable before the long day wanes. He encourages them to make use of their old age because ?tis not too late to seek a newer world. He declares that his goal is to sail onward beyond the sunset until his death. Perhaps, he suggests, they may even reach the Happy Isles, or the paradise of perpetual summer described in Greek mythology where great heroes like the warrior Achilles were believed to have been taken after their deaths. Although Ulysses and his mariners are not as strong as they were in youth, they are strong in will and are sustained by their resolve to push onward relentlessly: To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.