Reflective Analysis: Ulysses and The Tyger
Poetry has been used throughout time by speakers to express their deep admiration for both innate and live things. The poems explore the notions of happiness and love for different individuals at distinctive time frames. The themes, monologues, and stylistic devices ensure literature that speaks to the heart. Such poems include Ulysses and The Tyger, which talk about two different objects of admiration for the narrators. The former’s narrator is a king who yearns for his past adventures, and the last dives into an admirer of the tiger’s power and stature.
To begin with, the poem Ulysses is a monologue by a distraught old king who is tired of his life: wife, kingdom, and subjects “it little profits him” and all he yearns for is his adventure. He is frustrated with his domesticated life and would wish to set sail again and continue with explorations. According to him, joy has only been during the times he travelled: by himself and with his crew, enjoying the adventures or even suffering through them. What gives him pleasure is the recollection of all the things learnt in his experiences and the need to explore more. He is ready to abandon all his comfort for the sails; it would give him more joy and purpose.
Ulysses recalls his fellow seamen to go back to the object of his admiration: more adventures before they depart the world. His old age and weak body are factors that are not going to stop him from pursuing his love. “One equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.” For Ulysses, a death in exploration would be more befitting than one encountered cooked up in one place. He has not yet achieved his purpose, and these sails might calm his aged body and fired up spirit. They will travel to seek, find, and not be defeated by any obstacle in their way. The essential fulfilling thing for him is this adventure till the end of his days.
The second poem, The Tyger, has a narrator in awe of all the fascinating aspects of nature. He uses the tiger to show how amazing and magnificent nature is to him. The narrator explores different qualities of the animal showering it with praise. It makes use of rhetoric to explain how he does not quite understand this beautiful creation and its creator too. “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” He speaks of the beautiful and dangerous complexities of this animal. “What the anvil? What dead grasp, dare its deadly terrors clasps!” He explores the quality of the beast marvelling at what could dare hurt it or cross its path.
It also marvels him something as ferocious as a tiger and fragile as the lamb could originate from the same creator. The narrators love for the tiger’s nature is shown by is intricate explaining of its working: its symmetry, agility and power. He appreciates his inability to understand the workings of this being as seen in the repetition of the first stanza in the last verse. The narrator’s need to understand and explore the functioning of the tiger leaves him in awe and marvel. His love for the tiger, creator and nature as a whole is reflected and evident throughout the poem.
The poems do not reveal a change of romantic love across time and cultures. Romantic love continues to remain the same over time. The cultural shift has changed how individuals view what is more important to them, what animates and motivate their existence, but when it comes to feelings, they remain the same. The writers of these two poems found that in two different things, one is an adventure and a wild animal, respectively. The narrators celebrate nature and individual experiences that give them a sense of purpose, these notions have not changed with time, and people are continually seeking a connection to a higher purpose. People fixate on different things and people to make them happy; others consider careers, money or families as the connection they need. Romantic love experiences vary from one individual to others, but underlying commonalities give it the same meaning over time.
Romantic love is a universal notion experienced by people from all walks of life, different cultures and all over the world. Romance is a feeling that brings about excitement, thrill, and exhilaration. Individuals around the globe experience the need for love. It gives a sense of deep emotional involvement of people towards what is important to them. However, the degree of importance attached to this varies from one person to another. Some cultures attach a lot of significance to romantic love, while others do not. It is perpetuated by the experiences and challenges faced in everyday life.
In conclusion, poetry can explore the deep-rooted feelings of a writer through the use of literary devices. The use of dramatic monologues where the narrator lays bare his most authentic soul, or rhetoric’s that question the purpose of his life without his object of love is essential for the exploration of love. It is why poems are considered an unfiltered way of expressing love for anything or anyone held dear to the heart.
Works cited
Blake, William.The Tyger. London,2002.Print
Joyce, James.Ulysses.London: Bodley Head, 1969.Print