Literature

Escapism in Tennyson’s ‘The Lotos-Eaters’

Alfred, Lord Tennyson envisions the languid, lazy world of Greek myth where the only necessary to-do is simple: do nothing.
Escapism in Tennyson’s ‘The Lotos-Eaters’
"The Lotus Eaters," 1895, by Thomas Moran. Oil on canvas. Portland Museum of Art. Portland, Maine. Public Domain
Walker Larson
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The great Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson clearly found the works of Homer fascinating; two of his most notable poems—“Ulysses” and “The Lotos-Eaters”—drew inspiration directly from Homer’s “Odyssey.” Of these two, “Ulysses” is the finer, more popular poem, yet “The Lotos-Eaters” is also impressive and worthy of closer study. In it, Tennyson used an episode from Homer’s work to explore humanity’s potentially destructive longing for peace, paradise, and rest.

Through a kind of nature-induced dream-state that seeks to transcend life’s sufferings, Tennyson examines the nature and danger of a melancholy that relies on intoxication.

Walker Larson
Walker Larson
Author
Before becoming a freelance journalist and culture writer, Walker Larson taught literature and history at a private academy in Wisconsin, where he resides with his wife and daughter. He holds a master’s in English literature and language, and his writing has appeared in The Hemingway Review, Intellectual Takeout, and his Substack, The Hazelnut. He is also the author of two novels, “Hologram” and “Song of Spheres.”