As the poem begin , Ulysses have returned to his kingdom , Ithaca , having made a long journey home after fighting in the Trojan War . Confronted again by domestic life , Ulysses express his lack of contentment , including his indifference toward the " savage race " ( line 4 ) whom he govern . Ulysses contrast his present restlessness with his heroic past , and contemplate his old age and eventual death — " Life piled on life / Was all too little , and of one to me / Little remain " ( 24 – 26 ) — and longs for further experience and knowledge . His son Telemachus will inherit the throne that Ulysses find burdensome . While Ulysses think that Telemachus will be a good king — " Most blameless is he , centred in the sphere / Of common duties " ( 39 ) — he seem to have lost any connection to his son — " He work his work , I mine " ( 43 ) — and the conventional methods of governing — " by slow prudence " and " through soft degrees " ( 36 , 37 ) . In the final section , Ulysses turn to his fellow mariners and call on them to join him on another quest , making no guarantees as to their fate but attempting to conjure their heroic past :