In Tennyson's "Ulysses," the aged king of Ithaca leaves his home and his family in search of new adventures. Ulysses touches on the reason for his departure late in the poem when he says, "Some work of noble note, may yet be done,/ Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods" (52-3).
Basically, Ulysses wants to leave Ithaca because he yearns for the days when he performed heroic deeds ("work of noble note," in other words). While...
In Tennyson's "Ulysses," the aged king of Ithaca leaves his home and his family in search of new adventures. Ulysses touches on the reason for his departure late in the poem when he says, "Some work of noble note, may yet be done,/ Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods" (52-3).
Basically, Ulysses wants to leave Ithaca because he yearns for the days when he performed heroic deeds ("work of noble note," in other words). While the duties of kingship might be enough for another man, Ulysses is unsatisfied. He feels that, compared to the valiant excitement of his youth, managing an island kingdom is pretty dull. As such, Ulysses is leaving home in order to seek out adventures that he feels are worthy of his legendary status, things that are "not unbecoming for men that strove with Gods." If this desire reveals the vain nature of Ulysses' personality, it also makes the character more human, as his experience of nostalgia and yearning for excitement make him surprisingly relatable.
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