Monday, January 2, 2012

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 28:70


Tennyson: The Lotus Eaters



The Lotus Eaters came and beckoned the sailors far from home, to a land of golden rays and pleasant weather all year long.   A place far from home.  A place we used to know.   One gets the sense of wanting this year to be better than the rest, time will tell if the year will blossom into a swell; new-year is like a cloud on the horizon full of weather that will either destroy the crops or make them prosper.
A land where all things always
seemed the same!
And round about the keel with faces
pale,
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame,
The mild-eyed melancholy
Lotus eaters came.
  
Okay, sorry for having two from Tennyson, but these poems must be dusted off and read again... I believe you will find them to be full of joyful moments.   I downloaded these poems from the Gutenberg Project under the title Six Centuries of English Poetry with commentary by James Baldwin. A short story must have the five elements of storytelling in order to be considered.  The elements are: 
  1. A story has a beginning middle and an end. 
  2. It has to have a sense of place.  
  3. It has characters/actors.
  4. It has to have an internal or external conflict.  
  5. The conflict has to be resolved.
Tennyson was excellent at telling stories through the structure of poetry.    


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