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Conformity and Rebellion The poem I chose to write about is “Ulysses”, by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is a poem based on Homer’s Odyssey, which is the story of Odysseus (Ulysses) and his journeys. Odysseus was King of Ithaca and leader of the Greek army. The Greeks sailed into Troy to fight what turned out to be a lengthy battle. After ten years at war, Odysseus and the Greek army conquered Troy and set …

…a prep talk before a big game. The poem “Ulysses” is very different from most poems in that it is the speech of one man, written by another. I feel this approach by Tennyson, was very successful in creating a powerful image of Ulysses’ speech. The poem emphasized Ulysses rebellion against conformity. At the end of the poem, Ulysses placed his son in charge of Ithaca and set his sails west to an untold adventure.