A Literary Analysis of The Lotus Eaters by Lord Tennyson Essay

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, moldingit in the blue mystery of twilight, in the opaline haze of sunset." He is one of the greatestrepresentative figures of the Victorian Age. His writing incorporates many poetic stylesand includes some of the finest idyllic poetry in the language. He is one of the few poets tohave produced acknowledged masterpieces in so many different poetic genres heimplemented perhaps the most distinguished and versatile of all the written works in theEnglish language. The first time I read The Lotus-Eaters1, I have to admit that I had a heartydislike for it. Having read The Odyssey in Literature class last year, this seemed like itsreplica. It occurred to me that Tennyson was plagiarizing Homer. But when I reread thepoem with greater depth, I noticed its poetic techniques, imagery, symbols, etc. It wasreally exceptional actually, although the meter didnt remain uniform. But when youthoroughly 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 didnt knowanything 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 besoliloquy. In one point in the poem, he says, Death is the end of the world...life all laborbe? I think he meant that life is hard to live there are so many obstacles, so many wrongturns, 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). TheyLotophagi spend their days in a daze, literally. This was the effect of the lotus...

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