Ulysses

“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning (1842)

Browning’s poem vies with “Ulysses” for the distinction of the most famous dramatic monologue of the Victorian era. Like Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” Browning’s “My Last Duchess” reveals flaws and foibles in the character speaking the poem. Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” however, contains more dramatic irony than “Ulysses” and is written in heroic couplets not blank verse.

"In Memoriam A. H. H." by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1850)

In Memoriam is among Tennyson’s most famous poems. While formally very different from “Ulysses,” both poems were written in response to the death of Tennyson’s friend Hallam.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot (1915)

Like “Ulysses,” Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a dramatic monologue. Unlike “Ulysses,” Eliot’s poem is a modernist poem written in free verse and dramatizes the perspective of a fearful, unadventurous, and unconfident man.

"Alfred Lord Tennyson’s page" from The Victorian Web

This page includes links to Biography, Religion, Works, Science, Gender Matters, Victorianism, Genre & Style, Literary Relations, Visual Arts, Poetic Structure, Image & Symbol, Theme & Subject, Setting, and Web Resources.

Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses” from The Victorian Web