Protest, Trauma, and Therapy in Tennyson’s “The Lotus-Eaters”

Abstract

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters” rewrites Homer’s tale from Book IX of the Odyssey; in Tennyson’s version Odysseus’ men successfully mutiny, declaring their independence from their captain and abandoning the voyage home. While the poem is typically read as a guilt-ridden celebration of the poet’s escape from society into a lush imaginative world, this paper compares Homer’s and Tennyson’s versions to demonstrate the political and psychological significance of the mariners’ opposition to their captain. Their decision to stay is an active political choice grounded in their post-war psychology. The paper then places Tennyson’s portrayal of the landscape and the mariners’ expressions of pain in the “Choric Song” in the context of therapeutic models for treating post-traumatic stress disorder among military veterans.