A central
theme of "" is that of age: in this poem, we don't encounter the hero of The
Iliad and The Odyssey. Rather, we encounter that same hero in
his old age, with the glories of the past largely relegated to memory. In Tennyson's poem,
Ulysses seeks out one final journey in the limited time left to him.
It's
notable, that when the focus of the poem shifts towards Telemachus, the generational difference
is the first thing that's stressed, via the father-son relationship between Telemachus and
Ulysses. Ulysses is, by this point, an old man, well past the peak of his abilities. Telemachus,
his son, is younger and at such a point in his life that he's ready to inherit his father's
responsibilities and take on that mantle of kingship while Ulysses embarks on this one last
adventure. This generational dynamic is something that I think is perhaps worth thinking about
when it comes to comparing and contrasting the two.
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