I've been reading Tennyson's Ulysses a few times, and

please respond

tl;dr

>>8926442
Seems like poetic license to me.

>>8926442
I think five minutes with Google could have answered this for you. But here goes...

Some of the grammar that would have made it clearer is left implied for the sake of metre. Remember that the sound of it is part of the sense. How's about this...

It little profits that - as an idle king / by this still hearth, among these barren crags, / match'd with an aged wife - I mete and dole / unequal laws unto a savage race.

You could jump from "little profits that" to "I mete and dole". In answer to your particular question:

>Shouldn't it be something like "It little profits that an idle king... should mete and dole"?

This is the point at which Ulysses moves from theorizing the value of such idle ruling to identifying with it personally, right? The vocalizing of the idleness and it's lack of value is part of what spurs on the rest of the monologue. In realizing his supposedly miserable lot, he is driven to journey again.

There is nothing wrong with it.

What is spooking you is actually the first line.
You'd be right if it read "It little profits an idle king" but that isn't what he wrote.

What you are pulling out is though thematic to the poem, who is "I" here, who is the king, who is Ulysses? "I am become a name".

>>8926681
>You'd be right if it read "It little profits an idle king" but that isn't what he wrote.
No, it's the other way around. What you wrote is fine, but that's not what he right.

>>8926690
*not what he wrote

>>8926668
>This is the point at which Ulysses moves from theorizing the value of such idle ruling to identifying with it personally, right?
Reminds me of when Sartre went from 'if God doesn't exist' to 'God doesn't exist' desu

>>8926698
Well alright but there is a movement there that is deliberate. The whole poem is about how the narrator decides he is really the Ulysses of legend, just older, and not a retired idle king. Its not an accident.

>>8926668

Thanks for the responses, guys. I understand what the poem is about, I was just confused about the grammar of the lines. But I see what you mean about it just being left out for the sake of metre.