"""Ulysses" is perfectly wrought dramatic monologue. Present the voice of the aged Ulysses planning a final voyage. Discuss the poem as a reflection...""

In a
dramatic , the speaker of the poem is not the poet. The speaker addresses an unknown
listener/audience. Through the monologue, the reader may or may not determine who that audience
is. The speaker reveals his/her temperament, some emotion and as such, the dramatic monologue is
like a confession. Even though the speaker in a dramatic monologue is traditionally not the
poet, Tennyson did say that "" expressed his own impulse to carry on after the death
of his friend Arthur Hallam. 

Ulysses voices his frustration and restlessness
with his "retirement." He is still a king and therefore he still has things to do, but
he longs for adventure. He equates his relatively sedentary life with decay: 

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 

To rust
unburnished, not to shine in use! (22-23) 

Ulysses then
says, "As though to breathe were life!" It is not enough to be alive in order to
appreciate life. Ulysses needs to embrace life to the fullest and give in to his adventurous
impulses. He recognizes that his son, Telemachus, is more suited to settle down. Ulysses needs
adventure; otherwise, he feels that he is simply allowing himself to decay. 

However, Ulysses does give a rousing speech in which he hopes to find adventure
again. 

We are not now that strength which in old
days 

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are-

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but
strong in will 

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
(66-70) 

Ulysses begins the monologue complaining about
his old age and his stationary life. He wallows in this frustration but ends the monologue with
a motivational speech to his men (and to himself). He ends the monologue with the hope that his
adventure has not or will not end. The transition from despair to hope is optimistic but it is a
hope that Ulysses seems to be clinging to, reaching for. The reader can't help but be empathetic
to Ulysses and urge him to adventure again (despite the fact that this would mean leaving his
wife again, but that is another discussion).