The content of Tennyson's Ulysses is arranged into five main sections. Each part treats a peculiar and different argument : the return of Ulysses to Itaca and his idea of his country; Ulysses' experiences and travels; the reason why he wants to leave Itaca again; the Telemachus and Ulysses' different way of being; the final speech to the mariners reflecting about the relation between death and intellectual curiosity.

Ulysses doesn't like to be inactive, he doesn't appreciate the inhabitants, his wife is no longer attractive to him and nature doesn't seem to comfort men. He is a king who does not respect the people of his country since they don't want to do anything but satisfy their material needs ( "horn and sleep and feed").

Ulysses feels the need to leave Itaca again to live new adventures and new experiences. He is not able to stop travelling. He has a passionate attitude to life ("I will drink life to the lees"; the alliteration of the "l" in life-lees focuses the attention on these words ).

Since he says he has enjoyed life "all times",  the reader understands he has always had a positive attitude toward life.

Ulysses narrates all the adventures he has gone through underlining the multitude of sufferances and difficulties he had to face with.

The key position of the word "much" created by a deviation of ordinary syntax suggests the great number of them and explains that travelling is not easy since it requires sufferance and troubles.

Thanks to those adventures he has become a name: it is not important what he have but who he is.

The words "seen" and "known" are both perception verbs and they are very individual implying also an emotional response.

The central position of the pronoun "I" has the function to focus the attention on it since the attention is on the person.

He knew himself thanks to the experiences he went through and the people he met: people' s interactions with the others are the main point of the argumentation.

He feels honoured to have lived all those situations.

He has an inclusive way of thinking about the world he doesn't know: if Ulysses stops travelling he will never feel alive.

The metaphor of the arch as experience explains that concept: he is attracted to what he doesn't know and he wants to travel in order to know and face new people and situations.

The exclamation marks at the end of the lines "not to shine in use!" and "to breathe were life!" express the emotional involvement of the character.

He still wants to fight in spite of his old age ("little remains", "eternal silence" as a metaphor of death, "grey spirit", the similie of the sinking star).

The expression "this is my son" makes the reader understand there is a silent listener to Ulysses' monologue.

The word "own" implies affection and a concept of possession.

The description of Telemachus' way of rule underline the difference between Ulysses and his son: while Telemachus behaves following the typically victorian  manners trying to reach what is "useful and good", Ulysses prefers to take the distances and he is ready to leave again by sailing.

Here the scene shifts to something different: Ulysses speaks directly to his mariners, now the listeners are clear. They have shared life and experiences with him ("My mariners", "souls", "you and I").

In spite of his old age, Ulysses is ready to challenge death and troubles in order to reach knowledge ("to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield").

The final description of the sunset and the approaching of the night are consistent with the age of the character.