The poem is one of the first examples of the dramatic monologue , a narrative and stylistic strategy introduced by Alfred Tennyson in the 19^th century. In the dramatic monologue there is just one person, the protagonist, who speaks to a silent audience composed by one or more people. The interlocutor/s is/are present but they don’t speak , they just listen to the speaker.

Considering the title the reader understands that Ulysses is the main character and the reader focuses his/her attention on his name. The poet recalls the mythical hero Ulysses, king of Ithaca and the protagonist of Homer's poem 'Odyssey'. After a long voyage and great feats he comes back to Ithaca older than he leaves. (I am become a name).

In the first part of the text Ulysses tells about his own country; Ulysses is the king of Ithaca. 
The monologue starts with Ulysses' words; he says that there is no advantage for him to remain in Ithaca, because people are savage ('Unequal laws unto a savage race').He says 'I cannot rest from travel', he misses his voyages and adventures and he feels like a prisoner in a static island. Ulysses lived great and terrible experiences, he was always with his crew, he discovered the meaning of friendship and he travelled all around the world and came into contact with multiple people, ideas and customs but specially he 'knew himself'. Ithaca's inhabitants are only interested in material things "hoard", "sleep", "feed". Indeed, in the first line there is the word 'profit' in a key position. The writer criticizes the Victorian mentality of progress using words that belong to the semantic field of prosperity. To tell the true, thanks to Ulysses's words you can understand Tennyson's point of view.

Ulysses doesn't want to stop travelling so far because he reaches knowledge. As regards the setting, Ithaca is described as an island with 'barren crags', as a desolate place.

The second part of the dramatic monologue starts with the characterization of Thelemachus, Ulysses's son. Ulysses makes a list of some adjective to characterise the figure of Telemachus. There is an anaphoric reference to Itaca inhabitants.He underlines the different beetween his and Telemachus's objectives.

Indeed, while his son is designed to rule the island, Ulysses wants to travell the sea. ('He works his work, I mine')

The next line regards Ulysses's travel companion: they are old but ready for new adventures. (''free hearts, free forehads). The setting focuses the attention on the reader beacuse it is dark and glomy and the speaker is conscious of the risk, however the character Ulysses doesn't change his idea and his decision because he is excited to discover new untraveled world.

There is a parallelism between, Dante's poetry and the writer's one. Both belive that the knowledgment lifts up the human race to the animals.('fatti non foste per viver come bruti, ma per servir virtute canoscenza')

So the hero symbolises the knowledgment because his curiosity helped him to his great feat.