Generation Gap

Wise Old Man
found here

“Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought

      with me—

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.” - Ulysses (ln. 46-53)

  

      This quote demonstrates some of the expectations facing men both young and old in the Victorian Era. For the young men they are anticipated to have "toiled, and wrought, and thought" and are expected to continue to do that while they are still young, as the older men in this poem set the example for them. The older men have already "toiled, and wrought, and thought" and those ideas are all in the past-tense for them. Thus it was the younger generation that was taking over those concepts, pushing the older generation out. They are the ones who are expected to uphold the ideals of the time now with a very specific outline of what that is: work, and creating, and thinking. 

       Meanwhile, the older men have only a very vague direction in this passage. All it really says about what they can do to fulfill societies expectations is, "Some work of noble note, may yet be done" the older men are apparently to the point in their lives in which they no longer need directions. Or maybe it was just hard to be specific because the abilities of each individual was different to the point that it would be difficult to point to something that all old men could do (or at least most old men).

      It is important to note that work was glorified both for the old men and for the young men. For the old men it is implied that having worked is good which in turn implies that young men should follow that good example. Also, near the end of this passage it specifically ties "honour" and "toil" together saying, "Old age hath yet his honour and his toil" telling old men that they should still be doing something productive if they are able to.


Tennyson, Lord Alfred. “Ulysses”. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature : The Victorian Era. Ed. Don Lepan. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2009. 165 − 66. Print.