A Reading of Ulysses, by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Written 1833, and published in 1842, Ulysses is one of Tennyson’s most popular and enduring works. A “blank verse“ poem that imagines Odysseus’ homecoming from the Trojan War. Confronted with a domestic life, he becomes restless. After long years of war and adventure, he seeks a sense of continuity between his past and present life, which he cannot find holed up in the palace of Ithaca.