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The Afterlife of the Odyssey

Though he was a Victorian who wrote during a century of massive social, economic, and technological transformation, Tennyson was a man of antiquated tastes. This can be seen in his predilection for classical myth and medieval legend. With particular regard to his interest in the Greek and Roman classics, Tennyson was an heir to the Renaissance, which had witnessed the “rebirth” of classical aesthetic and philosophical traditions. A major touchstone of this tradition was Homer’s great epic poem, the Odyssey, which told the story of the Greek hero Odysseus and his harrowing 10-year journey home after fighting in the Trojan War. The first English-language translation of the Odyssey appeared in 1616. This version, which was penned by the poet George Chapman, had a significant influence on English-language poetry in the following centuries. Another influential translation appeared in 1725–26, this time written by the great satirical poet Alexander Pope. These and other early translations brought the Homeric world into the British imagination and made a particular impression on Tennyson. His most famous Homeric poems are “Ulysses” and “The Lotos-Eaters,” though he wrote many other works indebted to the Odyssey as well as to Homer’s other great epic, the Iliad.

The Tradition of the Dramatic Monologue

Though it may initially seem like an unlikely entry, “The Lotos-Eaters” could be read as belonging to the tradition of the dramatic monologue. Dramatic monologues are similar to the soliloquies that appear in plays, and according to the preeminent literary critic M. H. Abrams, three things characterize the form. First, dramatic monologues are spoken at a particular time and place by a specific individual who is not the poet. Second, they are specifically directed at a listener whose presence isn’t directly referenced but rather implied by the speaker’s words. Third, their primary focus is to reveal the speaker’s character. Although elements of the dramatic monologue have existed in literature at least since the time of the Greek poets, it wasn’t until the Victorian period that these elements coalesced into the form we know today. The Victorian most closely associated with the dramatic monologue is Robert Browning (1812–1889). In landmark poems such as “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover,” Browning explored the aberrant psychologies of his speakers, many of whom are unreliable and otherwise detestable. For his part, Tennyson used a less-refined form of dramatic dialogue to explore the experiences of less problematic speakers, including an aging Odysseus in his poem “Ulysses” as well as Odysseus’s mariners in the Choric Song of “The Lotos-Eaters.”

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