Shifting Realities in The Lotos-Eaters Sydney Griffin College

In Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters”, he brings into question the differing perspectives that each individual possesses. By describing the reality of the sailors before the consumption of the Lotos flower and after the ingestion of the enchanted Lotos, he brings attention to the idea that there exists various versions of reality and the ways that mind-altering substances can produce alternate or imaginary versions of reality. Through careful perusal of the poem and the comparison of the mindset of the sailors in the opening stanzas to the choric song, the reader can come to understand how Tennyson considers a flexible reality.

In the opening stanza to “The Lotos-Eaters”, Tennyson sets the scene and inserts the reader into the poem by describing the strange land that the sailors happen upon. He states: In the afternoon thy came unto a land / In which it seemed always afternoon. / All round the coast the languid air did swoon, / Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. (3-6) Immediately Tennyson invokes images of tiredness and dreamlike exhaustion, setting the atmosphere for the land that the sailor come across. Tennyson continues to elevate the land to a dreamlike, slumberous image. He utilizes language to allow the reader...