The Lotos-Eaters By Tennyson

I. Introduction

For many years, Tennyson has attracted readers by what Edmond Gosse called

"the beauty of the atmosphere which Tennyson contrives to cast around his work, molding it in the blue mystery of twilight, in the opaline haze of sunset." He is one of the greatest representative figures of the Victorian Age. His writing incorporates many poetic styles and includes some of the finest idyllic poetry in the language. He is one of the few poets to have produced acknowledged masterpieces in so many different poetic genres; he implemented perhaps the most distinguished and versatile of all the written works in the

English language.

The first time I read “The Lotus-Eaters”1, I have to admit that I had a hearty dislike for it. Having read The Odyssey in Literature class last year, this seemed like its replica. It occurred to me that Tennyson was plagiarizing Homer. But when I reread the poem with greater depth, I noticed its poetic techniques, imagery, symbols, etc. It was really exceptional actually, although the meter didn’t remain uniform. But when you thoroughly understand it, you see how it pertains and is true to life.

This being the first time I had ever come about a work by Tennyson. I didn’t know anything about his life. The idea that manifested me was that when writing this poem,

Tennyson was depressed and cynical. Sort of like Hamlet2 in the “To be or not to be” soliloquy. In one point in the poem, he says, “Death is the end of the world...life all labor be?” I think he meant that life is hard to live; there are so many obstacles, so many wrong turns, and you can never go back and change anything.

II. Analysis of Poem

A. Summary

The poem is about the journey of Odysseus to the Land of the Lotus

Eaters. Here they encounter a race of creatures known as the Lotophagi (lotus eaters). They[Lotophagi] spend their days in a “daze”, literally. This was the effect of the lotus flower. It was a primitive version of narcotics.

The Lotophagi offered the plant to Odysseus and his crew members. Some of the clique ate it. And then, they too, experienced a state of euphoria. Under these circumstances, they start speaking of staying over here[land of Lotos

Eaters], and only dream about home. They forget their wives and children; only dream about them.

Subsequently, the entire crew ate the lotos plant. Tennyson describes euphor... ... middle of paper ...

...days at Cambridge he often did not bother to write down his compositions. We owe the first version of

"The Lotos-Eaters" to Arthur Hallam, who reproduced it from Tennyson’s tidbits of information.

IV. The Poem’s Place in its Time

Tennyson turned to questions of death, religious faith, and immortality in a series of short poems, of which “The Lotus-Eaters” was a part. Tennyson had a way of achieving a covenant with his “public”. He gave them what they wanted. For example, the poem Princess was won by the hearts of the millions because it supported the women’s rights, which was one of the issues just igniting at that time. His consummately crafted verse expressed the terms of the Victorian feeling for order and harmony.

Unlike Dickens, who was present in Tenneson’s time and a social critic,

Tennyson didn’t seem to find an ill to society. Maybe that is why he was given the title of Lord and not Dickens.

V. Bibliography

1.“Lord Alfred Tennyson,” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia ‘99, October 1999

2. The Norton Anthology of Poetry, The Lotos-Eaters, W.W. Norton & Company,

New York, 1997, p. 540.

3. World Wide Web-http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/tennyson.html.