Page 53 - Writes of Passage

from THE LOTOS−EATERS
There is sweet music here that softer falls Than petals from blown roses on the grass, Or night-dews on still waters between walls Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass; Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir’d eyelids upon tir’d eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies. Here are cool mosses deep,
And thro’ the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The Lotus (or Lotos) Eaters were islanders in Greek mythology, who ate a plant that stupefied you and made you forget your past, your home and family, and made you want to stay forever on their island, never making any effort again. Odysseus, hero of Homer’sThe Odyssey, stopped at the island on his voyages, and had to strap some of his sailors to his ship after they ate the Lotos, in order to make them
travel on. This verse, from a longer poem by the Victorian Poet Laureate Alfred, LordTennyson (1809 – 1892), suggests the balm of nature and the appeal of rest. Fortunately we can read it and recognise in it the longing to sleep, without being trapped forever. When I was young, I loved the lines: “Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tir’d eyelids upon tir’d eyes”. The very thought makes me want to nod off.
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