Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
There's a lot of debate about what real-life plant the "Lotos" refers to. It might have been a reference to the opium poppy, which has a seed pod that looks like a lotus pod. (FYI: "Lotos" is just an alternate, less-common spelling for "Lotus.") (Source.)
There's a private club in New York called the Lotos Club, which took its name from the poem. Apparently a bunch of rich guys (including Mark Twain!) heard about this place where you just lie around all day, and thought that sounded like just the right idea. (Source.)
Tennyson's family was crazy. Drugs, drinking, insanity, death threats, scheming—it's all there. Poetry Foundation has some of the dirt in their bio of Tennyson. (Source.)
Tennyson was a huge success as a poet, at times pulling in over 10,000 pounds a year—a big chunk of change in his day. (Source.)