 As the poem begins , Ulysses has returned to his kingdom , Ithaca , having made a long journey home after fighting in the <unk> War . <unk> again by domestic life , Ulysses expresses his lack of contentment , including his indifference toward the " savage race " ( line 4 ) whom he governs . Ulysses contrasts his present restlessness with his heroic past , and contemplates his old age and eventual death — " Life <unk> on life / Were all too little , and of one to me / Little remains " ( 24 – 26 ) — and longs for further experience and knowledge . His son Telemachus will inherit the throne that Ulysses finds burdensome . While Ulysses thinks that Telemachus will be a good king — " Most blameless is he , centred in the sphere / Of common duties " ( 39 ) — he seems to have lost any connection to his son — " He works 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 turns to his fellow mariners and calls on them to join him on another quest , making no guarantees as to their fate but attempting to <unk> their heroic past : 
