Tennyson - lotus eaters

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  • Tennyson
    • the lotus eaters and choric song
      • setting:
        • misty/hazy = sense of concealment
          • 'smoke...shadows'
      • form:
        • rigid Spenserian stanzas in lotus eaters, much looser in choric song = lack of responsibilty
      • voice
        • 3rd person narrator - detached observer - not affected by the lotus
      • context
        • opium very popular at the time
          • 'poppy-lidded sleep
    • Mariana
      • setting
        • 'blackest moss...rusted nails...broken sheds' - show decay = her mind is decaying
        • time setting:
          • 'at even...the night...the day' = cyclical nature of day/night in each stanza show time passing
      • form
        • equal 12 line stanzas with repeated refrain - reinforces the monotony of her life
      • voice
        • omniscient narrator/3rd person/detached + judgmental =  society?
        • repeated refrain = marianas voice = direct speech - shows her dispair
          • the repeated refrain shows us all that matters to her - the description of setting etc. isn't her voice because she doesn't care about it.
      • language
        • pathetic fallacy emphasizes her loneliness
        • 'old footsteps trod the upper floors...' she is losing her mind
        • last stanza
          • becomes desperate: refrain changes from 'she said...I would' to  'she wept...oh god'
          • structure
  • language:
    • the lotus eaters and choric song
      • setting:
        • misty/hazy = sense of concealment
          • 'smoke...shadows'
      • form:
        • rigid Spenserian stanzas in lotus eaters, much looser in choric song = lack of responsibilty
      • voice
        • 3rd person narrator - detached observer - not affected by the lotus
      • context
        • opium very popular at the time
          • 'poppy-lidded sleep
    • 'seems...streams...dreams' all sound like 'seem' = is it all as it seems?
    • sleepy language = effect of the lotus
      • 'vale...pale...'
    • 'courage!' first word = voice of Tenn./Ulysses  -  not susseptable to lotus/drugs like mariners
    • repetition of 'let us alone...let us alone'
      • because they have become petulant + childlike from lack of responsibility

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