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Like other formal aspects of “The Lotos-Eaters,” Tennyson uses different metrical strategies in the two parts of the poem. In the five stanzas that make up the poem’s first section, Tennyson adopts the unique stanza form that Edmund Spenser developed for his epic allegorical poem The Faerie Queene. This stanza form consists of nine lines, with the first eight written in iambic pentameter and the final line written in iambic hexameter. This means that Tennyson preserves the da-DUM rhythm of iambic meter throughout the first five stanzas, with the main variation being that each stanza ends with a slightly longer line. As a representative example, consider the poem’s opening stanza (lines 1–9):

“Cou-rage!” / he said, / and point- / ed toward / the land,
“This mount- / ing wave / will roll / us shore- / ward soon.”
In the af- / ter-noon / they came / un-to / a land
In which / it seem-/ ed al- / ways af- / ter-noon.
All round / the coast / the lan- / guid air / did swoon,
Breath-ing / like one / that hath / a wear- / y dream.
Full-faced / a-bove / the vall- / ey stood / the moon;
And like / a down- / ward smoke, / the slen- / der stream
A-long / the cliff / to fall / and pause / and fall / did seem.

Despite the occasional metrical variation in the opening foot of individual lines, the underlying rhythm of this passage is clearly iambic. As such, in the poem’s first section Tennyson establishes a relatively strict metrical regime. The rigidity of this regime relates symbolically to the way the mariners have had to toil in their long voyage from Troy back home to Ithaca. In order to make this journey, they have had to show physical as well as mental discipline. Tennyson mirrors this discipline in the metrically-stable stanzas of the poem’s first section.

However, once the mariners eat the lotos fruit and begin to sing their Choric Song in the poem’s second part, the meter grows increasingly unstable. Particularly notable is that the variation in line length grows increasingly extreme and unpredictable. In the Choric Song’s first seven stanzas, the line lengths range between three and six feet. Consider the opening of stanza 4 as an example (lines 84–89):

Hate-ful / is the / dark-blue / sky,
Vault-ed / o’er the / dark-blue / sea.
Death is / the end / of life; / ah, why
Should life / all la- / bour be?
Let us / a-lone. / Time driv- / eth on- / ward fast,
And in / a lit- / tle while / our lips / are dumb.

Only the last two lines have five feet. By contrast, the first three lines have four feet, and the fourth line has just three. Tennyson pushes this metrical irregularity even further in the Choric Song’s final stanza, many with lines growing to a whopping eight feet. By the end, all the lines have more than five feet (lines 168–73):

Till they / per-ish / and they / suff-er / —some, ‘tis / whis-per’d— / down in / hell
Suff-er / end-less / ang-uish, / oth-ers / in E- / ly-sian / vall-eys / dwell,
Res-ting / wea-ry / limbs at / last on / beds of / as-pho- / del.
Sure-ly, / sure-ly, / slum-ber is / more sweet / than toil, / the shore
Than la- / bour in / the deep / mid-o- / cean, wind / and wave / and oar;
O, rest / ye, bro- / ther mar- / i-ners, / we will / not wan- / der more.

As the breakdown above shows, the final lines of the poem range between six and eight feet, according to the following progression: 8 8 7 6 7 7. By increasing the average line length, Tennyson echoes the drowsy effects of the lotos fruit. He further amplifies this effect by shifting from iambic rhythm (da-DUM) to the opposing trochaic rhythm (DUM-da). In contrast to the rising pattern of iambs, trochees have a falling pattern that, throughout the Choric Song, Tennyson increasingly uses to mirror the mariners’ desire for rest.

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