Courage!’ he said, and pointed toward the land, / ‘This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.
-- Odysseus & Speaker (Lines 1-2)

Importance: These lines are significant because they open “The Lotos-eaters” and establish the main perspective. At the same time, these lines create an expectation that is foiled throughout the rest of the poem – that the poem will focus on Odysseus, the central character from Homer's Odyssey. However, Odysseus never directly appears again within the body of the poem, suggesting Tennyson’s interest in exploring an alternate idea of heroism or antiheroism.

A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke, / Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go; / And some thro’wavering lights and shadows broke, / Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below
-- Speaker (Lines 10-13)

Importance: These lines are significant because they are an example of the seductiveness of the luxuriant imagery included throughout Tennyson’s poem focused on the special setting of the lotos-eaters’ island. Note how in...