The degree to which Tennyson identify with Ulysses have provided one of the great debates among scholars of the poem . Critics who find that Tennyson identify with the speaker read Ulysses ' speech " affirmatively " , or without irony . Many other interpretations of the poem have developed from the argument that Tennyson do not identify with Ulysses , and further criticism have suggested that the purported inconsistencies in Ulysses ' character are the fault of the poet himself .