I think the quotation is very useful to better understand the meaning of a textual analysis. It is about a teacher who invites his students in making an analysis of Tennyson's Ulysses. To help the students he gives them some advices but in particular he eggs on experience realms of of possibility Beyond the sunset. In a metaphorical way the teacher becomes Ulysses who is inviting the Victorians in not to stop to strive, to seek, to find and to yield.

The first advice is to approach poetry with open and inquisitive minds. It means that the reader has to be critic and has to make hypothesis about the poet's choices. For example considering Tennyson's Ulysses the possible questions are: why did Tennyson choose Ulysses? Why did he use the dramatic monologue? After a complicated reflection the reader can answer that Tennyson chose Ulysses because myth overcomes boundaries and it is well known and so Victorian people would understand the poem better. Regarding the second question, he adopted the dramatic monologue because it is innovative and it
allows a comparison between Ulysses and the Victorians.

Going on reading the quotation, the second information is that poetry has not an absolute or definitive meaning, but it depends on the reader. The complexity is not to search a possible answer, but to argue it with textual references. To analyse a text the reader has to consider different levels: phonology, syntax, figures of speech, ... In Tennyson's Ulysses the major semantic field is the one of the voyage (see, crew, isle, mariners, vessel) that reminds to Ulysses' desire: differently from his son Telemachus, Ulysses wants to leave his island to explore new places.  

Beyond the advices the reader understands the teacher's opinion about literature. It thinks it is the only subject that requires the use of the mind, because reading requires thinking. Literature is opposed to television who is considered a passive activity. From this sentence the reader understands the teacher's negative idea of the contemporary activities.