In the poem Ulysses, author Alfred Tennyson shows us a Ulysses that is quite different from the one we are used to from such epics as the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the first of three sections of the poem, Tennyson’s Ulysses is a begrudged and aging man who feels disappointed with the latter years of his life. He feels that his life is pointless, unless he can get out and do some more …showed first 75 words of 393 total…

…showed last 75 words of 393 total…poem. An example of one of them is his use of the word experience in line 19. In this context, experience symbolizes the horizon. It is not so much the literal horizon, but the horizon of your knowledge of the world. This analysis is used again later in the work, in line 60, when Ulysses say “…For my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset…” meaning that they will sail beyond anywhere that they have knowledge of.