“The Lotos-eaters” is set on the titular lotos-eaters’ island. This island setting is significant in part because of how its natural elements reinforce the oblivion induced by its lotos. The natural imagery of the land is a picture of sleepiness and rest with its languid natural elements. Very early on, even the third-person speaker seems somewhat taken in by this fact, with his description of how the island is “A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke, / Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go; / And some thro’ wavering lights and shadows broke, / Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below” (10-13).

The island is also a place of intense sensory seductiveness, which further overwhelms those who eat the lotos with the promise of oblivion and eternal restfulness. The lotos-eaters themselves observe that “There is a sweet music here that softer falls / Than petals from blown roses on...