Analysis Of Ulysses By Tennyson

In life we all go through times that are very tough and we just want to give up and live no longer. We want the easy way out, but in life it's not the right choice to make. Alfred Lord Tennyson, an author during the nineteenth century wrote many poems during his lifetime from 1833 to 1901. In his lifetime he wrote a poem called Ulysses. In the poem Ulysses Tennyson expresses many major messages, three of these are to never give up during the rough times, enjoy life, and that when you are old you pass all of your tangibles down to the younger ones.
The poem Ulysses expresses the message to never give up on life when it's tough. The poem is about the main character Ulysses, who is also the speaker who is talking about how hard his life has been …show more content…
Ulysses is a man who has done a lot in his life. He enjoyed every moment of it, even if he wasn't with his family for the majority of their lives. You don't have a lot of time to live life, life is short so you should enjoy everyday. He represents this message when Ulysses knew that he was going to eventually be home but until then he's going to live every moment he has until he dies. He learned that even at the worst of times that he has to enjoy the moments as best as he can. For example John Cooper, an author, states “I knew the value of hard work in hard times, but never forgot how to enjoy life to the fullest”. He knew that even on his weakest days he had to learn to enjoy …show more content…
In the poem Ulysses leaves his kingdom to his son. He is no longer able to take care of it and passes it down. In life our elders have valuable things and when they are no longer able to keep them they pass them down to the next generation in line. Not only do elders pass down tangible things, they pass down intangible things, like wisdom, stories, and past experiences. In the article Wisdom of Elders, it states “Today’s seniors have collected a treasure of experiences and wisdom that could guide us today and in the future”(Tandon). Elders not only pass down very important items but they pass down knowledge that we can use and gain from. The older generations are always telling us what not to do because they know from experience and they don't want us to do the same, just like this article states “For instance, the older generation told us the kids would grow up too fast; to enjoy them while we could. I just nodded and smiled. Now that we're approaching the halfway in that journey with our own kids, I realize all those folks were bestowing on me the benefit of all their experience and maybe their regret”(Marshall). Elders know what they're doing when they pass something down to us, they are wise. Most of the time we don't listen to what they say, and then later realize we should have listened to