The Lotos-Eaters By Tennyson

The Lotos-Eaters By Tennyson

…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…

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