Lotos

As one of the most prominent symbols in Tennyson’s poem, the lotos represents a state of oblivion. As is made clear from the rhetorical questions posed by the lotos-eaters, the lotos results in the total forfeiture of any desire to compete and achieve – “Let us along. What pleasure can we have / To war with evil? Is there any peace / In ever climbing up the climbing wave? / All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave / In silence: ripen, fall and cease: / Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease” (93-98). However, Tennyson also represents the way of the lotos as a path of hubris and, ultimately, blasphemy against the gods. In their lotos-induced oblivion, the lotos-eaters overreach when they proclaim, “Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind, / In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined / On...