Tennyson's Ulysses, compared to Dante's Ulysses and Joyce's Ulysses, is different because Ulysses is an old man and deals with Capitalist issues. Right from the start, Tennyson uses a precise language based on the materialistic point of view of the Capitalism, in fact in line 1 there is the world :profits, in contrast with "idle", in order to make profit, people have to work, and Ulysses figure can't be idle, but it must be a model of progress, of labor. In the second line there is the image of the hearth, symbol of fire, and it wants to make understand to the reader the difference between the flame of Dante's Ulysses, where fire is a symbol for the desire of knowledge, while the flame in Tennyson's Ulysses is weak, because Ulysses is old, he had already lived his life, he had already learnt, known, had a lot of experience, in this way his desire for knowledge is fading. Farther there is the symbol of "barren crags", symbol for the sterility, in order to underline the idea of the end of life.
In the third line Ulysses complains about his life, his wife is old, his work has no more importance for him, because is only to "mete and dole". He considers people of Ithaca as savage people, in contrast with "laws". In order to underline the importance of Capitalism, he figures people who only sleep, save up for the future, eat, they are stuck to the conventions, while Ulysses can't stay because he has a different vision, he wants to travel, even if he is old. To highlight this aspect, Ulysses says "I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees.." : Ulysses made a lot of experiences, he saw many cultures, and he is unable to understand people who follows only one way of thinking, even if Ulysses made mistakes, he learnt what is the sense of life, and he wants to live his life fully. Ulysses to make understand the reader how was difficult his life, reports images of sterility and aridity (shore, scudding drift). Ulysses is nostalgic for his past adventure and glory. He recognises people like him only in the war of Troy, people who battles for an aim. In this way Ulysses, through his travels has the possibility to discover some aspects of his life, because he "accumulate" as Ithaca people, but in a different way, knowledge of different aspects of life and cultures.