The lotus, or rather the enchantment encountered after eating a lotus is a representation of nature, in the sense that it is the opposite of toil. The lotus-eaters wish to be like the God’s ‘careless of mankind’. The mariners are tired of ‘climbing up the climbing wave’ and ask for ‘dark death or dreamful ease’ the dreamful ease obviously being represented by the lotus, and the stupor felt after eating it. The choric song goes to give us a number of reasons as to why the lotus-eaters wish to remain on the island of the lotus-eaters. These range from the argument as to ‘why should we (mankind) toil alone’, as well as arguing that all things ‘ripen towards the grave’ and so since everything is fleeting it is also futile, as well as arguing their return to come like ‘ghosts to trouble joy’. The choric song is essentially the lotus eating mariners plea to Ulysses to allow them to remain in this land of luxurious self-indulgence. The lotus-eaters desire is to stay with nature to ‘lie reclined on the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind’. However we know from reading the Odyssey that this plea fell on deaf ear, Ulysses proclaiming ‘but I brought them back, I brought them back to the hollow ships and streaming tears’, the loss of nature? The lotus incidentally is a powerful symbol in many religions not least in Buddhism (which must be noted was not yet created at the time of Homer’s writings). In Buddhism, the lotus symbolizes purity, longevity, and prosperity, which can be associated with the God’s the mariners wish to be like, the lotus is also supposed to be the first flower bloomed in the beginning of this cosmic world.
Let us now look at the real world, away from the land of the lotus-eaters, the world that the lotus-eating mariners describe with contempt with that in comparison of the dreamful ease they experienced under the influence of the lotus. They say that there is no ‘peace in climbing up the climbing wave’, sentiments echoed by Tennyson word for word in an earlier poem. So we can say that this weariness and longing for death is a common theme of Tennyson, this weariness of the real world of work and toil and ceaseless movement, ‘why should life all labour be?’ The real world is that of Ulysses’ journey homewards to Ithaca, back to his life before it was interrupted by War. However it is understandable that these mariners are tired from this journey, from the ceaseless movement, the toil of humanity. They are weary of ‘action and motion’, the real world is ‘Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands, Clanging fights, and fiery towns, and sinking ships and praying hands’ they have had enough of this world and would like to inhabit what ‘seems’ to be a quasi-ethereal realm. However it must be mentioned that the land of the lotus-eaters is but a land of appearances, where everything is the same ‘In which it seemed always afternoon’ also notice the use of the word seem, which is used throughout by Tennyson. In the land of the lotus-eaters nothing IS but everything seems. The final stanza in the choric song the lotus-eaters describe their land as a ‘hollow’ land, indicating that this land is somehow insubstantial.
So in conclusion the world of the lotus-eaters is one of great attraction to the mariners, here they would live in peace and happiness, but are prevented to do so by Ulysses who are driven back to the ship and the real world of endless toil tearfully. Is this a defeat of nature, as those that wish to remain with Her are prevented of doing so? I do not think so, as the land and the lotus’s remain. It should be noticed too that the poem is an inversion of the biblical story of Adam and Eve, who upon eating the fruit are condemned to ‘labour by the sweat of his brow’ whereas in the Lotus-Eaters, upon eating the fruit they no longer suffer this toil.
Bibliography
The Odyssey by Homer as translated by Robert Fagles
