“The Lotos-Eaters,” by Lord Alfred Tennyson, has a rather intriguing theme: a return to an almost utopian society possessing a dream-like quality. To start with, a group of travelers arrives at a place that seems to be in an eternal afternoon. The land is filled with “languid” air, a full moon, a waterfall, and plentiful streams (Tennyson 5). This search for a legendary city may be Tennyson’s way of echoing Wordsworth’s comment on whether looking for such places was “a mere fiction” of something that didn’t ever exist (Riede). Secondly, these travelers are compelled to lounge about, never to work again: “why/Should life all labor be?” (Tennyson 86-87). The mystical powers of the lotos flower stem from Homeric legend. This plant, when eaten, would leave the consumer with only one desire – to live in idleness (“Benet’s”). Thirdly, when the travelers eat the magical lotos flower, they feel a lack of wanting to return home and a sense of forgetfulness. They also seem to loose touch with reality (sounds became far away). The drug-like effect of the lotos, which is similar to that of opium, is utilized by Tennyson. Tennyson uses vivid descriptions of the lotos acting on the sailors to bring the reader into a sort of trance. Then the trance is broken by the speaker: he questions the state that would make the sailors forget their duty to their families and countries (Platizky).
The mysterious locale, the land of the lotos-eaters, possesses intriguing qualities and serves a purpose to Tennyson. The description of the land as having an eternal afternoon with a full moon, languid air, and plentiful rivers equates it to other legendary lost cities. Wordsworth wrote of some of these cities in “The Recluse”. The speaker of the poem mentions Elysian groves and fortunate fields that were sought after in the Atlantic region (800-802). Within the poem, the question of why these places should only be historic or a “mere fiction of what never was” is raised (804). It is as if this speaker were musing over this issue because they felt the places could be real. Tennyson includes his own Elysian field in “The Lotos-Eaters” to affirm Wordsworth’s reflection on the existence of such places – to say yes; maybe they are real in some way. It could also be, as Riede writes in his article, that Wordsworth was asserting the places are fiction, and Tennyson was refuting that claim.
Another part of this locale – the sea – serves an important purpose as well. The sea’s harshness contrasts with the mildness of the land. In this way, the sea represents the worldly existence that the lotos-eaters are trying to escape with the lotos (Kissane 64). To those who took the lotos, the waves coming up on the shoreline seem very distant: “the gushing of the wave/ Far far away did seem to mourn and rave” (qtd. Kissane 64).
It is this mysterious setting that creates a mood similar to a trance for the reader. The land of the lotos-eaters is as languid as its air. Everything is slow moving in this land – the waterfalls are “slow-dropping” into a “slumberous sheet of foam”, the sunset lingers, etc. (Tennyson 11, 1319). Even the lotos eaters are so calm they are sad; they come to the mariners “mild-eyed” and “melancholy” (Tennyson 27).
The mariners quickly fall under the spell of the land when they consume the lotos. One of the first things they feel after consumption is the distance of the waves on the shore, followed by seeming to be in a deep sleep while still awake (Tennyson 32, 35). Later on in the poem they feel a strong sense of laziness and are content to sit on a hillside watching others work (Tennyson 145-162). This mood of almost depressing idleness is used to put the reader in a trance similar to that which the mariners feel.
In addition to vivid descriptions, Tennyson keeps up the “enigmatic” quality of the story by careful use of verbiage (Shaw 66). He uses the word ‘seemed’ – the “verb of illusion” six times, as pointed out by writer Shaw. This helps to reinforce the illusory effects of the lotos. The other verbs Tennyson uses are in the past tense. When infinitive phrases like “fall and pause and fall” are coupled with these past tense verbs, an impression of timelessness is qualified by the verb ‘seemed’ (Shaw 66).
The drug effect of the lotos that the mariners feel is not a figment of Tennyson’s imagination. Neither is lotos-land. Benet’s Readers Encyclopedia credits Homer with the creation of the drug and its users. According to the encyclopedia, in Homeric legend, the flower made users forget friends, homes, and any desire of returning home. Since this is exactly what happens to Tennyson’s mariners, it fits well with the legend.
Upon closer inspection of Homer’s The Odyssey (the document where the legend of the lotos originates), the parallels between Homer’s work and Tennyson’s are quite noticeable. In the ninth book of The Odyssey, the speaker and his squadron reach the land of the lotos-eaters. This squadron, much like Tennyson’s mariners, is fed the lotos flowers by the native inhabitants. The squadron “lost all desire to send a message back, much less return, their only wish to linger there…” (107-108). The squadron’s forgetfulness of home and wanting to stay in the mysterious land sounds very similar to that of the mariners in “The Lotos-Eaters”. These stories are quite similar until this point; then they take a strong departure. The Odyssey’s speaker resisted the temptations of the lotos, forcing his squadron to set sail again (book IX. 110-112). The sailors in “The Lotos-Eaters” are not as fortunate to escape the drug’s grasp – they remain in the newly discovered land.
One important aspect of this legend is the wish to live in idleness (Benet’s). This idleness may be what leaves the mariners feeling godlike. They muse over why they should continue working, especially when others can enjoy rest (Tennyson 57-69). Further into the Choric Song, the mariners sing of how pleasant it was to feel that they were always falling into dreams (Tennyson 101). In the last stanza the mariners declare outright that they should live in the Lotos land “like Gods together,” because they live above the troubles of mankind (Tennyson 155, 159-161).
This declaration of living by gods is justified by the mariners to themselves. Just a few lines down from this bold assertion, they say that man lives with “enduring toil” until death, and some suffer in hell (Tennyson 165-168). The mariners feel that the gods are indifferent to man (the gods sit removed from man in relaxation, while man works excessively). Declaring themselves to be godlike is their answer to the indifference of the gods (Kincaid). This description of man is also a vision of all life as being wasteful and “pointless” (Kincaid).
Until the last stanza of “The Lotos-Eaters”, the readers have been in their trance created under the poem’s leisurely mood. With the mariners’ declaration of wanting to live like gods, the reader is snapped out of their trance (Platizky). This trance, according to Platizky in his article, is used to make the reader question the nature of what makes the mariners behave and think the way they do. The abrupt declaration also shows the consequence of losing order (Riede). Tennyson is perhaps trying to make the reader decide if the consequences of taking the lotos are worth the high it gives its users.
The drugged state of the mariners is used by Tennyson for a somewhat political statement, also. The mariners’ claim that “There is confusion worse than death” could have a hidden meaning referring to anti-Victorian attitudes (Platizky). Victorian principles generally embraced progress, duty, and community. This horrible confusion is the rejection of these values that is evoked by the lotos drug. Tennyson may be trying to get his readers to question where they stand on such issues.
The many parts of Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters” (the mystical location created by language, the effect of the lotos, and the trance the reader feels) add up to a central meaning of the poem. First, Tennyson is affirming that there is a place where one can escape toil. Even if the land of the lotos-eaters doesn’t exist, the effect of the lotos flower does; both of which were used as escape mechanisms. Secondly, and maybe most importantly, he is using the abruptly broken trance of the reader and the mariners’ feelings of being godlike to question whether such an escape is worth it.
Works Cited
*Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. London: Penguin, 1996.
*Kincaid, James R. Chapter Three: Poems (1842). 28 March 2001. victorianweb.org. 15 Feb. 2004. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/
tennyson/kincaid/ch3.html#lotus>
*Kissane, James. Alfred Tennyson. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1970.
*”Lotus-eaters”. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Edition 3. 1987. Infotrac. February 2, 2004. 70379470w3/purl=rc1_GRCM_0_A18049139&dyn;=16!xrn_13_0_A1 8049139?sw_aep=uncol1>
*Platizky, Roger S. “Like dull narcotics, numbing pain”: Speculations on Tennyson and Opium. 2002. MUSE. February 3, 2004. < http://0- use.jhu.edu.source.unco.edu/journals/victorian_poetry/v040/
40.2platizky.html>
*Riede, David G. Tennyson’s Poetics of Melancholy and the Imperial Imagination. 2000. MUSE. February 1, 2004. < http://0- muse.jhu.edu.source.unco.edu/journals/studies_in_english_literature/
v040/40.4riede.html>
*Shaw, W. David. Tennyson’s Style. Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press. 1976.
*Tennyson, Lord Alfred. “The Lotos-Eaters”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Abrams, M. H., et al. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000. 1208-1213.
*Wordsworth, William. “The Recluse”. Bartleby.com. 2003. Bartleby’s. 16 February 2004. http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww301.html
