Tennyson, Alfred [Lord]
"Lotos-Eaters [The]" (1832, 1842)
Tennyson based this poem on an incident from the Odyssey of Homer.
When Odysseus and his men arrive at the island of the Lotos-Eaters
they are given the fruit of the lotus tree, which makes men forget
their homes or remember them only vaguely and wish no longer to
travel or toil. They become like people who have taken a narcotic.
STYLE. The first five stanzas are narrative. They
are in the Spenserian stanza form, which is associated with tales
of adventure and action.
STANZA 1.
The opening word of Odysseus to his men is courage, an ironic
command because the rest of the poem shows their courage ebbing
away. Arriving on the shore of this beautiful and dreamy land,
the mariners disembark amid a crowd of the inhabitants, who offer
them the fruits of the lotos tree. As soon as they taste the
fruit the men feel weary. No longer eager to return home to Ithaca,
they are content to rest where they are.
THE LAST STANZAS. The rest of the poem, from line
46, is the song sung by the mariners. In it they express the
beauty of lotus-land and their own heavy and melancholy sense
of fatigue.
In the fourth stanza of the song the repeated phrase "Let
us alone" capture their feelings. The lines of the song
are irregular in length but repetitious in phrasing, giving a
lazy, undisciplined feeling. The stanzas gradually become longer
toward the end of the poem.
The last stanza has twenty-eight lines. In it the mariners suggest
that they will lie about like the gods on Olympus, who casually
and carelessly disrupt the lives of people on earth for their
own idle amusement. Since the gods can so easily spoil people's
lives and thwart their efforts, why should the mariners aspire
to anything but rest and relaxation? They conclude, "We
will not wander more."
QUOTES:
Hateful is the dark blue sky,
Vaulted o'er the dark blue sea.
Death is the end of life; ah, why
Should life all labor be?
. . . .
All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave
In silence--ripen, fall, and cease:
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease. (84-98).
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