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Ulysses and Columbus
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Edited by H. Clement Notcutt
Narrated by Denis Daly
Much of Tennyson's poetry is elegaic in nature, featuring characters who have been disempowered by isolation, age or lack of opportunity. One of the most famous example of this in the dramatic soliloquy, Ulysses, in which the aging hero visualizes setting forth on another nautical adventure in an effort to recapture the glory of his youth. This poem is considered one of Tennyson's finest works, and was called by T.S.Eliot "the perfect poem."
Columbus, written many years later, is also a dramatic narrative, which has much in common with Ulysses. In both cases, the narrators are elderly mariners, who have a long history of daring forays into remote regions, and who are eager to venture forth again, but are hampered by lack of opportunity and the effects of aging. While Columbus is not considered as great a poem as Ulysses, it contains many fine lines and presents a compelling portrait of the great explorer and his tragic decline.
The recording also contain introductions to each poem by literary scholar H. Clement Notcutt.
