The Struggle for Confiscation: An Imperialistic Look at Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Poem “Ulysses”

Abstract

The power of imperialism ascended during the Victorian age, when both the sense of nationalism and industrial revolution concurrently took place. Imperialism in its kind is the sense of domination of one group of people over another, or to a great point, it’s the domination of one country to other countries to confiscate its properties and belongings. Here in the poem written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, the poet tries to ironize the situation by showing and focusing on such an old king (may be the king of England), who has recently come back home from his travels and has complained about his “idleness.” This “idleness” for the king is equal to ceasing the kind of power, namely, if he does not move and battle, he has nothing for his country, and even he does not record a name for himself in the history of England. Thus the aim of the present paper is not only limitedto the relation between power and the sense of imperialism, a relation that leads to malicious and destructive behavior but it also condemns that kind of relation. However, it is done implicitly, as once the poet did in his poem, by showing the negative use of power in hands of some, like the king of England, who has done his best even at his death’s door to continue again and conquer wherever he sees that brings benefits to him. Not surprisingly; the poem also implies to the battle of Troy in the sense of imperial actions.