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“The Lotos-Eaters” has a rather unusual structure that consists of two main parts. The first part (lines 1–45) has a narrative quality and features an anonymous speaker describing the arrival of Odysseus and his Greek mariners on the island of the lotos-eaters. By contrast, the second part, which is explicitly labeled “Choric Song” (lines 46–173), has a more formal and poetic quality. Furthermore, this section abandons the individual speaker from the first section and is instead sung by a collective speaker: the mariners themselves. Despite this bifurcated structure, not much happens in the poem in terms of action. Essentially, the mariners arrive on the island, examine its lush topography, eat some of the local fruit, and, growing increasingly weary, sing about their desire to rest from their toilsome sea journey. But what “The Lotos-Eaters” lacks in terms of physical action it more than makes up for in terms of formal intricacy. To understand the poem’s structure, it’s crucial to discuss what’s going on formally in each of the two parts.

The poem’s first part has five unnumbered stanzas, each of which takes an identical form. Tennyson borrowed this form from Edmund Spenser, who invented a unique stanza for his epic poem The Faerie Queene. Commonly known as a “Spenserian stanza,” this stanza form consists of nine lines, the first eight of which are written in iambic pentameter (five feet), and the last of which is iambic hexameter (six feet). In addition to following a strict metrical pattern, the Spenserian stanza has a fixed rhyme scheme: ABABBCBCC. The formal rigidity of this opening section is suggestive, considering that it narrates the mariners’ initial arrival on the island, leading up to their consumption of the lethargic lotos fruit. Since this poem reimagines an episode from Homer’s Odyssey, we know that these men didn’t intend to stay on this island. Rather, they are simply taking a brief respite from their long sea journey home to Ithaca. This journey, as well as the 10-year Trojan War they are returning from, requires extreme physical and mental discipline. In this regard, the formal rigidity of the stanza form mirrors the sense of discipline the mariners have been forced to maintain for many years.

It isn’t until the effects of the lotos fruit have kicked in that the poem’s form undergoes a significant transformation. This transformation is marked by the section title, “Choric Song,” which initiates the shift from the anonymous third-person speaker to the collective first-person speaker: the mariners themselves. The Choric Song is much longer than the poem’s first section, and it features eight numbered stanzas. In stark contrast to the Spenserian stanzas of the first part, these stanzas here are formally irregular, reflecting the mariners’ desire to relinquish all discipline. Though the stanzas of the Choric Song generally maintain iambic rhythm, the line lengths are no longer stable and now range between three and eight feet. The stanzas also have much more erratic rhyme schemes. It’s also notable that, with the one exception of stanza 7, every stanza in the Choric Song is longer than the last. Tennyson mirrors this pattern of expansion in stanza 8, where the average line length rises above five feet. Taken together, these techniques create a feeling of increasing heaviness that echoes the mariners’ debilitating lethargy.

Finally, it’s important to note that the stanzas of the Choric Song follow an alternating structure that scholars describe in terms of strophe and antistrophe—which is to say, of observation and response. Readers can detect this alternating structure simply by noting how the tone of the Choric Song shifts from stanza to stanza. In general, the tone oscillates between celebrations of the sweetness of rest and the bitterness of toil. To see how this works, consider the difference between the opening lines of stanzas 1 and 2. The first stanza of the Choric Song emphasizes the sensuous musicality of the island (lines 46–47):

There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass

The stanza continues in a similar vein, describing the sensual pleasures associated with rest. In stanza 2, however, the mariners suddenly turn to an expression of resentment (lines 57–59):

Why are we weigh’d upon with heaviness,
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness?

If stanza 1 presents an observation of what’s so sweet about resting from one’s toils, stanza 2 responds with a bitter reflection on the conditions of life that would make rest feel so sweet. In this way, the men are working through their conflicting thoughts and feelings, implicitly working to justify their final decision: “we will not wander more” (line 173).

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