 Despite the critical acclaim " Ulysses " received , its rise within the Tennyson canon took decades . Tennyson did not usually select it for publication in poetry anthologies ; in teaching anthologies , however , the poem was usually included — and it remains a popular teaching poem today . Its current prominence in Tennyson 's <unk> is the result of two trends , according to Tennyson scholar Matthew Rowlinson : the rise of formal English poetry studies in the late nineteenth century , and the Victorian effort to articulate a British culture that could be exported . He argues that " Ulysses " forms part of the prehistory of imperialism — a term that only appeared in the language in 1851 . The protagonist sounds like a " colonial administrator " , and his reference to seeking a newer world ( 57 ) echoes the phrase " New World " , which became common during the Renaissance . While " Ulysses " cannot be read as overtly <unk> , Tennyson 's later work as Poet Laureate sometimes argues for the value of Britain 's colonies , or was accused of <unk> . Rowlinson <unk> the Marxist theorist Louis <unk> 's extension of the argument that ideology is <unk> , finding that Tennyson 's poem " comes before an ideological construction for which it nonetheless makes people nostalgic " . 
