Comment on the theme of action in the poem "Ulysses."

In
"," the contrast between action and inaction, rather than action solely, is the major
theme. Ulysses himself, as an old man, is continually "roaming," but this physical
action does not stop the "yearning" of his "grey spirit" to "follow
knowledge like a dying star." On the contrary, Ulysses feels himself now an "idle
king," ruler of a people whose primary occupation is sleeping and eating. Ulysses contrasts
this to his past, when he had "drunk delight of battle" with his fellow soldiers in
the age of Troy. Now, he regrets that he no longer has the strength to continue traveling away
from his country; the parts of the world he has not seen are like a physical pain to
him.

However, Ulysses does indicate that the work he is now doing, along with
his son Telemachus, is not worthless. They are both attempting to subdue and civilize the
"savage" people of whom they will in turn be rulers: "He works his work, I
mine."

The final stanza of the poem is often associated with death, as
Ulysses laments to his "old" companions that, while their will is strong, their bodies
are weak; the cry of the sea is strong to them, but "the long day wanes: the slow moon
climbs." The pathetic fallacy here represents the drawing of life to a close, and the
action Ulysses imagines"to sail beyond the . . . baths of all the western
stars"represents sailing to a place unknown to the living, inhabited by heroes of legend
like Achilles, their fallen companion. The final action of the poem, then, is the action of
dying and returning to the Elysian Fields as young men again.