Question

Which word best describes the mood of Ulysses in Tennyson’s poem Ulysses?somber, bitter,melancholy, heroic?

Answer 1

Among the given options, the word that best describes the mood of Ulysses in Tennyson's poem of the same name is heroic. The poem is a remembrance of the life he lived as a hero and how his current unsatisfying life is surrounded by the nostalgia of the yearning for younger years:

"Much have I seen and known; cities of men and manners, climates, councils, governments (...) I am a part of all that I have met (...) How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use!"

Yet we can observe how he evolves to show a more eager restless tone expressing his will to keep fighting and striving even not in the ideal circumstances of what used to be:

"We are not now that strength which in old days, moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Answer 2

The best mood that describes Ulysses is heroic in the poem by Ulysses of Tennyson. Lord Tennyson introduces an old man who has returned from all the exciting and life-threatening adventures reported in The Odyssey. Ulysses sits on his throne to tell and remember his glory days, which makes him feel heroic. In addition, Ulysses is heroic in this poem because he wishes to leave his complacent domesticity for the opportunity of greater danger and adventure.