In the poem
"," Tennyson presents the aging monarch back in his kingdom after his numerous
adventures. He longs to take ship with his mariners on one last voyage to accomplish, as he
says, "something ere the end, some work of noble note...not unbecoming men who strove with
Gods." In this respect, Ulysses sees the people of his kingdom as a burden that he would
like to pass on to his son, Telemachus, so that he might be free. It is significant, however,
that though he pines for the opportunity to be gone, Ulysses remains in his kingdom and
successfully overcomes the temptation to abandon his subjects. He must, therefore, see his
people as worthy of governing, as he has stayed with them despite his daydreams of further
adventure.
In the course of the poem, Ulysses describes his people as "a
savage race, that hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me." Later, he expresses the
thought that his son can "make mild a rugged people, and thro' soft degrees subdue them to
the useful and the good." From these lines, we gather that Ulysses considers the people of
his kingdom to be savage, rugged, and perhaps difficult to govern, but he has hopes that with
the right leadership, they will be capable of becoming better, milder, and more
useful.
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