Ulysses in Dante and Tennyson

Abstract

In a critical essay entitled The Dilemma Of Tennyson W.W. Robinson says of Tennyson's Ulysses: " ... although he speaks with the accent of Tennyson, the speakers is unmistakably the Ulysses of Dante."Further on he says: "Tennyson's Ulysses is Homer's Odysseus felt through Dante" Both of these statements are misleading in that they imply Tennyson's poem and its persona are wholly derived, a mere tmnslation of a passage from Dante. Nothing ,in fact ,can be farther from the truth, for, although Tennyson's poem was inspired by a passage fmm Dante's Divina Commedia, indeed in spite of the fact that lexica'! elements are 'borrowed' by Tennyson from Dante, the theme of the English poem is completely different. There :are, moreover, other differences apart from the thematic one which contribute 'towards rendering Tennyson's poem an entirely original work.