In
"," Ulysses shows a restlessness in the face of his advancing years, striving for one
last energetic reclamation of his earlier glory. In many ways, this feels like a willful
defiance of the aging process. In it, Tennyson is simultaneously looking backwards, towards the
awareness of and celebration of past glories and triumphs, as well as forwards, towards the
future, by way of this last journey Ulysses would embark upon, before eventually
dying.
It's an interesting conundrum, because I feel like this poem
celebrates a very specific kind of retirement: in it, Ulysses retires from his kingship, passes
on his responsibilities to his son. It presents a very active, very energetic vision of
retirement, through which Ulysses seeks to recapture something of the person he had been, back
when he was younger.
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