The Lotos-Eaters by Tennyson is a poem that can be interpreted as having several meanings. While it can be understood as a lament for masculinity in peril, it can also be interpreted as an expression of regret for sailors' indulgence in forbidden pleasures. Tennyson shows this in many different ways, the first being the vocabulary used in the poem before and after the actual ingestion of the lotus flowers; the sailors' admiration for the beauty of the island provides an effective contrast to their disconnection from it and everything else once they have eaten the lotus. Another device that emphasizes this point is Tennyson's drawing of parallels between the effects of the lotus, the topography of the island itself, and the state of men, linking them in such a way that one echoes the other. This establishes a feeling of identity that pervades the poem and mimics the effects of the lotus on sailors, highlighting all that was lost by the sailors who chose to eat it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay From the first stanza, Tennyson uses pleasant words to extol the beauty of the island and paint it as a desirable place to stay. Words such as “languid” (Tennyson line 5), “slender” (8), and “afternoon” (3) all have pleasant connotations, and Tennyson's repetition of certain phrases, such as “like a smoke downward” ( 8, 10) emphasizes how ethereal and picturesque the streams seem. The sound of the stream is also unconsciously evoked by the hissing of the words 's' repeated in “...smoke, the thin stream” (8). This positive characterization also continues in the second verse; a river is described as “shining” (14), and mountain peaks as “coming from the sunset” (17). These idyllic terms represent the charm of the island before the sailors take the lotus, and will be contrasted with harsher language in later stanzas, the comparison highlighting what the sailors have lost. The use of the word "enchanted" (19) to describe the sunset is also very significant, as it has associations with magic and enchantments; in one sense, Tennyson is saying that the sunset is something the sailors were lucky enough to see, but in another he is foreshadowing the effects the lotus will have on them. This connection is made stronger by the use of the words “enchanted stem” (28) to describe the lotus itself later in the poem. Once the inhabitants of the island, the “lotus eaters” (27), give the lotus to the sailors, the language employed by Tennyson suddenly changes. Instead of words with positive meanings and connotations, start using alienating and isolating words. The waves “weep and rave” (32), suggesting that the sea itself is sad and angry at men. Not only that, but he does so “on alien shores” (33), showing how far the men are from their previous life at sea and even from their current position. It turns out that men's perspective on the sea has also changed; not only is it “far, far away” (32) but it is also “sterile foam” (42), underlining once again how much men have lost to the lotus. The distance between the men themselves also proves to be great, since when they speak their voices seem to come “from the grave” (34). In the final stanza, what men have given up is thrown into sharp relief; it is made clear that they now “dream only of [their] Homeland” (39), demonstrating that the idea of ​​home is no longer a reality for them. Their slaves are also regarded fondly and included in their nostalgia, in the phrase “child, wife, and slave” (40). Separated from their comrades, their surroundings, and their hope, the sailors have given up everything for the perseverance oflotus effects and are simply relegated to dreams. Constancy is also a very important thread of the poem, with Tennyson describing the island as unchanging, chronologically. The sailors land on the island “in the afternoon” (3) and it is later described as a place where “it always seemed like afternoon ” (4). This immediately suggests that this is a land that does not change and whose beauty is both breathtaking and constant. In fact, the sun and moon both appear at the same time, confusing even the most basic measurement of time. The sunset is said to have "lingered" (19) and the island itself is directly said to be "a land where all things always seemed the same" (24). Consistency is also highlighted by the extremely regular rhyme scheme of the poem, which does not deviate at any point from the scheme established in the first stanza. An even more interesting picture is painted by the meter of poetry; it is mostly in iambic pentameter, although the last line of each stanza is in hexameter, establishing a regular rhythm. Furthermore, once the sailors have actually taken the lotus, the meter becomes much more regular, with ten syllables in every line except the last of each stanza, which of course has twelve, being in hexameter. The reason these characteristics are important is that monotonous and unyielding regularity is all the lotus has to offer, and it is what sailors have given up the good and bad of their normal life for; the forbidden pleasures they engaged in denied them everything except identity. Another way this identity is described is by conflating the characteristics of the island with the effects of the lotus, in effect saying that the island, the lotus, and those who take it are all the same. The word “seem” appears many times in the poem, describing the landscape, the men, and the lotus' effects on them, and this serves to unify them in a state of flow. The land itself "seemed ever afternoon" (4), the sea "seem[ed] to weep and rave" (32), and the men themselves are described as "seeming fast asleep" (35). Tennyson increases this effect in the rhyming couplets at the end of each stanza, each of which contains a comparison between two opposing ideas. In the first stanza, the stream seemed to “fall and stop and fall” (9); in the second, the mountains “colored by the sunset” (17) are juxtaposed with the “shady pine” (18); in the third the faces of the lotophages are described as both “pale” (26) and “dark” (26); in the fourth the men seem "asleep" (35) and "all awake" (35), and in the fifth the core of the poem emerges, that is, the contrast between "home" (44) and "wandering" (45). The effect this has on the reader is to show how even disparate ideas are the same on this island, and under the lotus effect, emphasizing once again how men have sacrificed variety for predictability. Even the landscape, the focus of the poem for the first three stanzas, is completely forgotten once the men take the lotus. Instead of being characterized as beautiful or breathtaking, the island is now simply where sailors will stay because they are too apathetic to go anywhere else; all the aesthetic charm of the island is irrelevant. It can be argued that the beauty of the island as described in the first three stanzas is actually the beauty of discovery and novelty, which is lost on the sailors once they submit to the lotus identity, once again showing the consequences to indulge in forbidden pleasures. The one thing that consistently features throughout the poem is the sea (in other words, the only thing mentioned in the poem that is not directly related to the island); the foam is said to be "sleepy" (13) and the sea "tired" (41). Please note: this is just an example. Get a document now.