The Lotus Eaters
I have a half-finished song-cycle which is based on the Odyssey. In the rare times I play live, I don’t mention this. I just play the songs. They can get it or not get it as they choose. I don’t want my intention to get in the way of someone else’s interpretation.
This latest song from the cycle is so un-subtle in its references, I decided to go ahead and discuss its origins. It’s a blatant retelling of Tennyson’s retelling of Homer’s story of the Lotus Eaters.
I first learned of The Lotus Eaters poem through Laura Ingalls Wilder. In Little Town on the Prarie, she stumbles upon a book of Tennyson’s poems tucked away in a drawer. She opens the book randomly, reads a few lines, then realizes that it’s her Christmas present. Not wanting to ruin the surprise, she puts it back without reading the rest of the poem. But the few lines she read haunt her for months. When she finally reads the poem at Christmas, it’s a let down.
Those months she was without it, though, burn the poem into her. She’s literally starving for it, as she methodically does her chores and helps the family.
Reading about her need for this poem, I was immediately drawn to it, and even though I could not understand it very well at the time, the lotus-infused arguments of the sailors stuck with me. Laura, a good hard-working farm girl, despised what she perceived as their laziness. I felt the temptation of their words.
My song is another generation’s retelling, influenced as much by Tennyson as by Patti Smith and Lou Reed, an attempt to convey a feeling of blissful detachment along with the unsettling sense that the bottom has dropped out.
Is it my attitude?
Not yet.
But I get it.
Here are the lyrics, and below that is the song.
Sipping on flowers The hours roll by The past, the present, the future are one So hard for me just to keep my eyes open So hard for me just to speak when I'm spoken to The joker is wild and the lotus is sweet Sweeter than any dear thoughts of my home And Eve took the fruit, so I'll take the flower The lotus will carry me, carry me, carry me, carry me, yeah The captain is angry The ship has to sail There is no more time for pleasure, he says But in this perfection, all action's a sin What care I, captain, at a change in the wind The joker is wild and the lotus is sweet Sweeter than any dear thoughts of my home And Eve took the fruit, so I'll take the flower The lotus will carry me, carry me, carry me, carry me, yeah What is that sail I see off in the distance Is that my own ship, sailing away Is this a dream, or did it just happen I can't seem to tell I can't see the sail The joker is wild and the lotus is sweet Sweeter than any dear thoughts of my home And Eve took the fruit, so I'll take the flower The lotus will carry me, carry me, carry me, carry me, yeah Carry me on Carry me on Carry me on