How is ulysses a dramatic monologue

He is perfectly aware that knowledge is vast and unlimited and our life on earth is too short to learn everything. Even a number of lives taken together would be too short for gaining all knowledge. So far he is considered he has a single life to live.

And of this single too a greater part has already been spent. Only a few years of life are left to him. Hence he is determined to make the best of every moment of the remaining years of his life. To him an hour spent in some profitable work means an hour saved from the silence of the death. The monologue of Ulysses reached to the point of climax, when he inspires his sailors and makes appeal to them to enter upon a life of exploitation with great courage.

Ulysses knows that he and his sailors being old are near death. But, he has not given up hope and believes that old man also can earn great glory and achieve great deeds. So, he inspires his sailors to achieve some great deeds even in their old age before they die. The paths of knowledge may be full of dangers, but he is strongly determined. And finally he makes a noble resolution to carry on his quest.

Many of the lines are enjambed, which means that a thought does not end with the line-break; the sentences often end in the middle, rather than the end, of the lines. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Page 1 Page 2. Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

The word spirit denotes a being that is full of life. Indeed, the human spirit is the life force within the body. In this case it is a gray spirit because the speaker is getting on in years and his hair is going silver-grey. At the same time, the concept of a grey head denotes wisdom. The wisdom of the speaker isthen reinforced by his determination to seek knowledge. He uses the tried andtested image of the star which was used to guide ships at night. So trustworthy was this, that ships could sail around the world in their quests for fortune,guided at all times by the stars.

The old man, still full of enthusiasm, seeksknowledge — just like the sailing ship seeks the stars to chart its progress. Sogreat is Ulysses zest for knowledge that it is beyond the bounds of human thought. No human can think this expansively! This is my son, mine own Telemachus, To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle- Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil This labour, by slow prudence to make mild A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees.

What the people of Ithaca needed was a ruler who had plenty of patience to civilize them. Ulysses believed that he himself was incapable of such patience but he had faith that his son, Telemachus, was admirably equipped for the work. Subdue them to the useful and the good. Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere Of common duties, decent not to fail In offices of tenderness, and pay Meet adoration to my household gods ,.

The ancient peoples had many gods. There were gods everywhere - gods in the mountains, gods in the plains, gods in the cities,river gods, fruit gods and gods of the harvest. In short, there were gods for every occasion. Each city and town had its own gods, and each household too had its own.

The Greeks believed that these gods were fairly malicious beings who might take revenge if not appeased with ample offerings. It was therefore dangerous for Ulysses to set sail while leaving his own household gods unappeased.

They might, for example, decide to sink his ship! It was therefore a relief for him that he could trust Telemachus to make offeringsto his gods for him. His journey might then be a safe one. When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners, Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thoughtwith me -. That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed Free hearts, free foreheads- you and I are old; Old age had yet his honour and his toil; Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices.

The poet appears to be using a combination of onomatopoeia and personification. He compares the sea to a person who ismoaning from a deep and everlasting sadness. The monologue takes the form of a retrospection; in the poem, Ulysses, the great hero from the Trojan wars, is an old man who, having returned to Ithaca, is looking back upon his Odyssey:. For on the ringing plain of windy Troy.

Trojan War. Fra Lippo Lippi Robert Browning. Ode to the West Wind P. The Thought Fox Ted Hughes. Love Song of J.