How Does Tennyson Tell the Story in the First 45 Lines of ‘the Lotus Eaters and Choric Song’?

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The en-capitulating tale of the Lotus Eater’s is divided into two parts, the first is a descriptive narrative and the second is a song of eight numbered stanzas of varying lengths. Tennyson uses various poetic devices to create vivid, rich settings, and allows us, the readers to follow the decay of human moral and psyche. The first part of the poem is written in nine-line Spenserian stanza’s, so called because they were employed by Spenser in ‘The Faerie Queene.” The rhyme scheme is a closely interlinked ABABBCBCC, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter. This rhyme scheme, I feel, gives the poem a slow and dreamy sensation, and really draws the reader into this overwhelming lull that seems to have consumed the mariners, the poem is structured very lazily which further adds to the atmosphere. The poem’s narrative perspective is omniscient; all the reader knows is that it is one of Odysseus’ mariners, which adds to the unease and lack of clarity. The first stanza instantaneously creates this feeling of mystery and unease, “This mounting wave will roll us shoreward”, this suggests the island has control of the ship perhaps, and that it is drawing the adventurers in. The land seemed “always afternoon”, this creates a languid and peaceful atmosphere, which may give the reader comfort and put them at ease, it is suggested that time doesn’t affect this place. The repetition of the phrase “downward smoke” is a caesura and adds slow movement to the poem. Tennyson also creates a sleepy and hazy atmosphere, “wavering lights”, “shadows broke”, “slumberous sheets of foam”, “silent pinnacles”, “aged snow”, all these further emphasizing the quiet and dreamlike feeling of the poem, however the reader is still not given a clear picture. They also subtly suggest that this island has a mind of its own; it is old and wise and has control of all the surrounding nature.
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