Hateful is the dark-blue sky,
Vaulted o’er the dark-blue sea,
Death is the end of life; ah, why
Should life all labour be?
Answer: These lines have been taken from the choric song of the poem “The Lotos Eaters” written by Alfred Tennyson. Here the mariners express their disgust at the extremely toilsome life which they have so far lived.
On their homeward journey, the mariners came across the island of the lotos eaters. Immediately after eating the lotos fruits, they became, as if, intoxicated and began to praise the island. They find complete peace, tranquillity, and bliss on this island. In this place, life is full of rest. In contrast, their earlier sea life was heavily toilsome and monotonous. Day after day, they had to encounter nothing but the perilous sea and the dark-blue sky. This is the reason they now preferred their present position on lotos island. They further reasoned that as the journey of life leads only to death, one should only enjoy life instead of engaging in heavy toil. It is meaningless too. fight evil. Thus in their perverted state, they expressed the hedonistic philosophy of life and desired easeful sleep, or even death.
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