At the beginning of Tennyson's "Ulysses," the eponymous hero is bored and frustrated. He spent ten years fighting at Troy, at the center of great events. He then spent another ten years in a series of swashbuckling adventures as he made his way home to Ithaca. Now that he is at home, there is nothing for him to do on the small, rocky island over which he rules. Nothing he sees meets with his approval. His people are "a savage race" who do not require or deserve a great hero to govern them. His wife is old, and so is he.

Bearing all this in mind, Ulysses has decided to set sail again in search of adventure. The poem ends with him calling together his crew (according to Homer's Odyssesy, they all died before reaching Ithaca, but Tennyson ignores this point) and telling them, in an inspiring speech, that it is "not too late to seek a newer world." Ulysses suggests many things that may happen to them on this journey. They may even find the Happy Isles and see Achilles again. This, however, is not the object of their quest. For this final voyage of discovery, they have no specific target and no end in sight. The point of the journey is the adventure itself.