How does Tennyson tell the story in The Lotus-eaters and Choric Song?
The ‘choric song’ is written in iambic style; the use of sibilance and assonance give the poem a song-like feeling. Both of these qualities create a sleepy effect in the poem which fits the persuasive purpose of the choric song, “tir’d eyelids upon tir’d eyes”. The repetition of ‘tir’d’ creates a heavy and swaying effect, which mimics the state of a person’s mind before sleeping and adds to the hypnotic feeling. The sibilance of ‘sweet sleep down from the blissful skies’, makes the line sound light and soft, which brings about a soothing effect that makes the setting being described appear to be idealistic. This could possibly a way of showing Tennyson’s life and being free and able to be in a world, which is perfect.
In stanza 7, the choric song focuses on the harshness of working. “sharp”, “sorrow”, and “harken” are used in this stanza, which are harsh and dull sounds than the words used to describe the island, such as ‘sweet’ and ‘blissful’. This could show the stress that they go through. The rhetorical question used in this stanza shows their curiosity of why they have to keep on working, “why are we weigh’d upon with heaviness”, which shows the burden of responsibilities, which is written about metaphorically as being physically hard. This also shows the contrasts with the physical relaxation brought on by the lotus flower and how it is some sort of relaxation tool to help them get up on their feet and get on with life. “Nor ever fold our wings”, this could perhaps show the cycle of labour and responsibility, in which in the world of man is an
