Following are a few questions that might be useful to discuss in the forum. On Tennyson’s “Ulysses”: On the whole, in what ways might the poem celebrate Ulysses, his choice to leave Ithaca, and the kind of heroism he and that choice represent? In what ways might the poem be ambivalent about or critical of Ulysses, his choices, and this brand of heroism? Given these lines, “The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep / Moans round with many voices,” does this sound to you like a voyage that is going to happen? On Waddington’s “Ulysses Embroidered”: How are Penelope and her relationship with and to Ulysses depicted in “Ulysses Embroidered”? How is this depiction like and unlike that in Tennyson’s “Ulysses”? What are some implications of the title of the poem? What different kinds of “journeys” are suggested and compared in the poem? In what sense might each kind of journey imply a different kind of heroism? How does Waddington change the Ulysses story by narrating it from Penelope’s point of view, or what does she encourage you to notice about the story by doing so? What, in particular, might doing so allow Waddington to ask or say here about the way gender roles are depicted in the story?
On Tennyson’s “Ulysses”: On the whole, in what ways might the poem celebrate Ulysses, his choice to leave Ithaca, and the kind of heroism he and that choice represent?
