| Abstract: | Editorials in rhyme may make bad poetry, but the poetic still talks to the political in challenging ways. This paper takes a Victorian classic, Alfred Lord Tennyson's Ulysses , and explores its portrait of a tired and idle political leader, desperate for distraction. Tennyson's intentions are ambiguous, his message about aged leaders and power open to interpretation. His apparent warning about narcissists and power are provocative, but the poem might be valued more for its rhetoric than for its political import. |
