Assertion of Faith and Optimism in Alfred Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’

The unrest in the religious and political faith during the Victorian era had a pessimistic influence on the poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson. Due to the scientific discoveries, the existing religious faiths were questioned, which resulted in Tennyson’s failure to endure the death of his friend Sir Hallam. The tone of inertia and stasis loom large over ‘Tears Idle Tears’, ‘Break Break Break’, and most dominantly over ‘The Lotus Eaters’. This paper is an endeavor to shed on Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’, which deviates from the static melancholic tone of his earlier poems and celebrates the spirit of faith and optimism.