{"id":27964,"date":"2015-01-27T06:30:09","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T17:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=27964"},"modified":"2015-01-25T18:33:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-25T05:33:09","slug":"the-tuesday-poem-the-lotos-eaters-excerpt-by-alfred-lord-tennyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/01\/27\/the-tuesday-poem-the-lotos-eaters-excerpt-by-alfred-lord-tennyson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuesday Poem: “The Lotos Eaters” (Excerpt) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lotos Eaters (Excerpt)<\/h3>\n
“Courage!” he said, and pointed toward the land,<\/div>\n
“This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.”<\/div>\n
In the afternoon they came unto a land<\/div>\n
In which it seemed always afternoon.<\/div>\n
All round the coast the languid air did swoon,<\/div>\n
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.<\/div>\n
Full-faced above the valley stood the moon;<\/div>\n
And like a downward smoke, the slender stream<\/div>\n
Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke,<\/div>\n
Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go;<\/div>\n
And some thro’ wavering lights and shadows broke,<\/div>\n
Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below.<\/div>\n
They saw the gleaming river seaward flow<\/div>\n
From the inner land: far off, three mountain-tops,<\/div>\n
Three silent pinnacles of aged snow,<\/div>\n
Stood sunset-flush’d: and, dew’d with showery drops,<\/div>\n
Up-clomb the shadowy pine above the woven copse.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The charmed sunset linger’d low adown<\/div>\n
In the red West: thro’ mountain clefts the dale<\/div>\n
Was seen far inland, and the yellow down<\/div>\n
Border’d with palm, and many a winding vale<\/div>\n
And meadow, set with slender galingale;<\/div>\n
A land where all things always seem’d the same!<\/div>\n
And round about the keel with faces pale,<\/div>\n
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame,<\/div>\n
The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came<\/div>\n
…
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1809-1892<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

—<\/p>\n

The full poem of The Lotos Eaters<\/em><\/strong> runs to ca. 14 stanzas so I have only give you an introduction to it here. Tennyson’s poem is informed by the homeward journey of Odysseus and his mariners from Troy and I have always enjoyed its powerful and evocative use of language in painting the seductive nature of the isle free from toil and the longing of the mariners to cease journeying and remain there. As with the best storytelling, the doubt cast on their wisdom is all in the subtext.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"TuesPoem\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lotos Eaters (Excerpt) “Courage!” he said, and pointed toward the land, “This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.” In the afternoon they came unto a land In which it seemed always afternoon. All round the coast the languid air did swoon, Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. Full-faced above the valley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27967,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27964\/revisions\/27967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}