Until the early twentieth century , readers reacted to " Ulysses " sympathetically . The meaning of the poem was increasingly debated as Tennyson 's stature rose . After Paull F. Baum criticized Ulysses ' inconsistencies and Tennyson 's conception of the poem in 1948 , the ironic interpretation became dominant . Baum find in Ulysses echoes of Lord Byron 's flawed heroes , who similarly display conflicting emotions , self @-@ critical introspection , and a rejection of social responsibility . Even Ulysses ' resolute final utterance — " To strive , to seek , to find , and not to yield " — is undercut by irony , when Baum and later critics compare this line to Satan 's " courage never to submit or yield " in John Milton 's Paradise Lost ( 1667 ) .