Tennysons
poem and Homers poem could not be more different. First of all, Tennysons poem is shortfour
stanzas. Homers Odyssey is in twenty-four books. As for substance, Homers
Odysseus wants nothing more than to go home. He has had his fill of adventures. He is done with
the sea, warfare, travel, and the like. What he wants is to embrace his wife, see his son, and
finally be home. In a word, Odysseus has had his fill of the world outside of home.
Tennysons , on the other hand, is at home, and he is bored. He does not want to rule:
ruling is too domestic. Moreover, he does not want to be honored by people who mean little to
him. Life in Ithaca means little compared to a life of adventure. Even in his old age, he wants
to be out there. The first lines of the poem make this point clear:
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren
crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage
race,
That hoard, and sleep,...
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