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प्रश्न
What makes Ulysses seek newer adventures?
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उत्तर
In the context of the poem, Ulysses has grown old. He has experienced all daring adventures. He has won the hearts of people during the battle at Troy. Back home, as per the prophecy of Tiresias, he rules Ithaca for a brief time. But he is fed up with the conventional duties of a king. He laments his own uselessness as a ruler of idle people who lead a life like savages, just eating and sleeping. They don’t understand the over vaulting ambition of their adventurous king Ulysses who had moved earth and heavens in the past. He wishes to embark on his next voyage. It might be his last. He is quite sensitive to the moans of the seas tantalizing him and his compatriots to set sail quickly. He wants “to drink life to the lees”. Ulysses doesn’t want to bask in the glory he has earned in the past.
His inquisitive spirit is restless. He has seen much’ and acquired knowledge of various cultures of the world. But he considers all such experiences like an “arch” leading him to the unexplored or “untravelled world”. He wants to sail towards the area ‘beyond sunset’. He must shine in use as a sword but not “rust unburnished”. Yet at home, in the kingdom of Ithaca, he feels bored and yearns to truly engage with what is left of life. He is impatient for “new” experiences lamenting every day and every hour to seek “something more”. His quest for adventure and fulfillment, like the goal of Goethe’s Faust, is defined by the pursuit of new knowledge “beyond the utmost bound of human thought”.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
Why were the soldiers in the castle fearless?
Why were the secret galleries bare?
Human greed led to the mighty fall of the citadel. Explain.
Read the given line and answer the question that follow in a line or two.
| Oh then our maze of tunneled stone Grew thin and treacherous as air. The castle was lost without a groan, The famous citadel overthrown, |
- Bring out the contrast in the first two lines.
- What is the rhyme scheme of the given stanza?
I will maintain until my death
Read the poem and complete the table with suitable rhyming words.
All through that summer at ease we lay,
And daily from the turret wall
We watched the mowers in the hay
And the enemy half a mile away
They seemed no threat to us at all.
For what, we thought, had we to fear
With our arms and provender, load on load,
Our towering battlements, tier on tier,
And friendly allies drawing near
On every leafy summer road.
Our gates were strong, our walls were thick,
So smooth and high, no man could win
A foothold there, no clever trick
Could take us dead or quick,
Only a bird could have got in.
What could they offer us for bait?
Our captain was brave and we were true…
There was a little private gate,
A little wicked wicket gate.
The wizened warder let them through.
Oh then our maze of tunneled stone
Grew thin and treacherous as air.
The cause was lost without a groan,
The famous citadel overthrown,
And all its secret galleries bare.
How can this shameful tale be told?
I will maintain until my death
We could do nothing, being sold:
Our only enemy was gold,
And we had no arms to fight it with.
| lay | hay |
Underline the alliterated word in the following line.
The wizened warder let them through.
Why is the casuarina tree dear to poet’s heart?
To whom does Toru Dutt want to consecrate the tree’s memory?
Read the line given below and answer the question that follow.
A creeper climbs, in whose embraces bound No other tree could live.
- Which tree is referred to in the above lines?
- How does the tree survive the tight hold of the creeper?
- Why does Toru Dutt use the expression ‘a creeper climbs’?
Explain the following line with reference to the context.
Dear is the Casuarina to my soul;
Why is the last stage called second childhood?
Read the poem once again carefully and identify the figure of speech that has been used in each of the following lines from the poem.
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
- “All the world's a stage”
- “And all the men and women merely players”
- “And shining morning face, creeping like snail”
- “Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,”
- “Seeking the bubble reputation”
- “His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide”
- “and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble”
Introduction
The poem ‘Ulysses’ is a dramatic monologue that contains 70 lines of blank verse. Ulysses, the King of Ithaca, gathers his men together to prepare for the journey and exhorts them not to waste their time left on earth. Ulysses has grown old, having experienced many adventures at the battle of Troy and in the seas. After returning to Ithaca, he desires to embark upon his next voyage. His inquisitive spirit is always looking forward to more and more of such adventures.
‘As tho’ to breathe were life!’ – From the given line what do you understand of Ulysses’ attitude to life?
Identify the figure of speech employed in the following line.
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea...
Identify the figure of speech employed in the following line.
.....the deep Moans round with many voices.
Read the set of line from the poem and answer the question that follow.
… I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and
know not me.
- What does Ulysses do?
- Did he enjoy what he was doing? Give reasons.
Explain with reference to the context the following line.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees:
What happened to the people who wanted too much money?
What are the poet’s thoughts on ‘being different’?
Read the line given below and answer the question that follow.
“Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.”
- How should one face life?
- Identify the figure of speech in the above line.
Pick out the alliterated words from the poem and write.
And this might stand him for the storms
Explain the following line with reference to the context.
and guide him among sudden betrayals
and tighten him for slack moments.
Explain how the poet guides his son who is at the threshold of manhood, to face the challenges of life.
How according to the poet is it possible for his son to bring changes into a world that resents change?
Who took the city of Ratisbon by storm?
Describe the posture of Napoleon.
Where did the rider plant the French flag after Ratisbon was captured?
Literary Devices
Mark the rhyme scheme of the poem. The rhyme scheme for the first stanza is as follows.
| With neck out-thrust, you fancy how, | a |
| Legs wide, arms locked behind, | b |
| As if to balance the prone brow | a |
| Oppressive with its mind. | b |
