Ulysses (poem)

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Setting

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Literary Devices Setting

Though not explicitly stated within the poem itself, we can infer the setting from what we know about the legendary figure at the poem’s heart. In the Odyssey, Homer tells of how Ulysses (known in that poem by his Greek name, Odysseus) suffered a long journey from Troy back to his home on the island of Ithaca, which is in the Ionian Sea. From contextual clues, it’s clear that Tennyson picks up where Homer left off. “Ulysses” therefore takes place on Ithaca in the period after the speaker’s homecoming. Ulysses appears to have been back for about three years (i.e., “some three suns” [line 29]), during which time he’s resumed leadership of the island. Now, however, he wishes to return to the ocean. This shift in the speaker’s intention mirrors an implicit shift in the speaker’s position over the course of the poem. Whereas he begins at the “still hearth” (line 2) of his house, he finishes at the island’s port, in view of the “dark, broad seas” (45). The setting might thus be understood more abstractly as moving between earth and ocean, “home” and “away.”

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