This document provides a summary of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lotos-Eaters". It begins by giving context about the poem's inspiration from Homer's Odyssey. It then summarizes the plot of Tennyson's poem, where Odysseus's men eat the narcotic lotos plant on an island and decide they want to stay there forever rather than continue their journey home. The document concludes by explaining how the men rationalize abandoning their families and lives to instead lay in the fields of lotos as the gods do, looking at human misery but making no effort to help.

1. Honours 3rd year Online Class
Course Title: Victorian poetry
Lecture: 1
By
Farijul Bari Talukder
Lecturer, Department of English, Narayanganj College.

2. Victorian poetry
Poetry written in England during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) may be
referred to as Victorian poetry. Following Romanticism, Victorian poets continued
many of the previous era’s main themes, such as religious skepticism and
valorization of the artist(শিল্পীর শিপূিতা) as genius; but Victorian poets also developed
a distinct sensibility. The writers of this period are known for their interest in
verbal embellishment, mystical interrogation, brooding skepticism, and whimsical
nonsense.

3. Victorian poets
Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Gerard Manley Hopkins

4. Victorian poets & poetry
The most prolific and well-regarded poets of the age included
Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Matthew
Arnold, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Oscar Wilde.
The reclaiming of the past was a major part of Victorian literature with
an interest in both classical literature but also the medieval literature of
England. The Victorians loved the heroic, chivalrous stories of knights of
old and they hoped to regain some of that noble, courtly behaviour and
impress it upon the people both at home and in the wider empire.

5. Alfred Tennyson (1809 –1892)
Alfred Tennyson was a British poet. He was the Poet
Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign and
remains one of the most popular British poets.
In the summer of 1829, Tennyson and Arthur Hallam
made a trek into conflict-torn northern Spain. The
scenery and experience influenced a few of his
poems, including Oenone and The Lotos-Eaters.

6. Homer’s epic poems
Iliad
Set during the Trojan War,
the ten-year siege of the
city of Troy (Ilium) by a
coalition of Greek states.
Odyssey
follows the Greek hero Odysseus, king of
Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan
War. After the war itself, which lasted ten
years, his journey lasts for ten additional
years, during which time he encounters
many perils and all his crewmates are killed.
In his absence, Odysseus is assumed dead,
and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus
must contend with a group of unruly suitors
who compete for Penelope's hand in
marriage.

7. Odysseus/ Ulysses
Odysseus also known by the Latin variant Ulysses is a
legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic
poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's
Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.

8. The Lotos-eaters
In Greek mythology the lotos-eaters were a race of people living on an island dominated
by the lotos tree. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and
were a narcotic, causing the inhabitants to sleep in peaceful apathy. After they ate the
lotus they would forget their home and loved ones. Those who ate the plant never cared
to report, nor return.
Figuratively, 'lotos-eater' denotes "a person who spends their time indulging in pleasure
and luxury rather than dealing with practical concerns".

9. The Lotos-eaters by Alfred Lord Tennyson
‘The Lotos-eaters’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson is a famous poem of the Victorian
period. The poet found inspiration from Homer’s Odyssey and wrote this
poem. The poem is based on an episode of the hero’s wanderings into the
troublesome world. It depicts the sufferings as well as their mental state
standing between hopelessness and death.
However, Tennyson visited the Pyrenees mountains and the scenic beauty
might have compelled him to look back to the story of Odysseus again. He
tried to revisit Odysseus’ world through his poetic imagination in this poem.

10. The Lotos-eaters by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Tennyson’s ‘The Lotos-eaters’ is based on a portion of Homer’s Odyssey in which
Odysseus’s men are fed lotos plants and become mesmerized by the land onto
which they have stumbled.
The poem begins with Odysseus commanding his men to have “Courage.” They
will soon find a shorn on which to land. They do so almost immediately and it
enchants them with it’s otherworldly beauty. There are valleys, snowy mountains,
and cliffs that are covered in streams.

11. The Lotos-eaters by Alfred Lord Tennyson
While the men are looking at their surrounding the “Lotos-eaters” appear and
deliver to the men branches covered in lotos flowers and fruits. The men who eat
these fruits, all but Odysseus, fall under the empty spell of the land. They believe
that they no longer want to continue their quest homeward and would rather stay
there where they do not have to worry about making their way back to the
“Fatherland.”

12. The Lotos-eaters by Alfred Lord Tennyson
The second half of the poem is made up of a “Choric Song” in which the men
describe all the reasons that they want to remain on the island. They do not think
that it is fair that they should have to labor their whole lives while no other being is
forced into the same fate. As humans, this is what their lives consist of and they no
longer want to take part. They confess that what they want most is a life in which
they relax until their death. They want to live as a leaf does, simply existing and then
dying when it is their time. Instead, the men state, they are head towards death
through a life that is nothing but misery. They would rather die now than have to
work their whole lives.

13. The Lotos-eaters by Alfred Lord Tennyson
The men do make sure to mention their wives and the homes they are abandoning.
But they believe that their families will be better off without them by this point. Life
has moved on and their return would only cause more problems. They are content
to live as they believe the Gods do. They will lay in their fields of lotos, as the Gods
do in their valleys of asphodel, and look out on human misery. They will make no
effort to intervene or help. The poem concludes with the men stating once more,
reassuring one another, that their wanders are truly finished.

14. Hope to continue this lesson in the next class
Thank You