Eagle

• He clasps the crag with crooked hands;: 'crag a high steep mass of rack; crooked-bent or twisted'
• Close to the sun in lonely lands,

  Hyperbol
• Ring'd with the azure world, the stands.: 'Ring'd--surrounded; azure-bright blue'
• The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;: 'wrinkled-having small folds or lines in one's skin'
• He watches from his mountain walls,: 'crawls-moves very slowly'
• And like a thunderbolt he falls.: 'thunderbolt-a flash of lightening'
• 
  

  He holds on to the high steep rough mass of rock with his twisted talons;
• Very near to the sun in lonely lands,: 'steep-rising or falling quickly'
• He stands surrounded with the world of the bright blue sky.: 'twisted-bent or turned, taloons-long sharp bent nails'
• Alfred Tennyson (6 August 1809 - 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate (an official poet of the state) of Great Britain and ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets.
• Tennyson excelled (was very good at doing something) at writing short lyrics, such as "Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears" and "Crossing the Bar", Much of his verse was based on classical (connected with Roman & Greek culture; mythological (connected with ancient stories) themes,
• watches means here the eyesight, aims at the target - "Think before you leap' also its intellectual power
• The distance it keeps away from the rest of the world
• All the words Show us eagle has the personality with " dignity Power
• In Memoriam A.H.H. was written to commemorate (to remind people of important past events) his best friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and fellow student at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was engaged (having agreed to marry somebody) to Tennyson's sister, but died from a brain haemorrhage /hemEridZ/ (a state of severe blood loss) before they could marry.
• Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls .
• During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success.
• The Eagle


  A poem written by the Englishman Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Tennyson lived during the Victorian Era


  1800s
• Romanticism


  • A movement in art and literature where feelings and imagination were more important than reason
  • Became extremely popular in the literary society
  • A reaction to the previous Age of Reason
  • Focused on freedom instead of conformity to accepted rules of society
  • Focused on imagination instead of reality
• Romantic poets


  • Believed that nature was beautiful, and humans are the centre of nature
  • Believed humans should get in touch with their inner soul by appreciating the beauty of nature
• Tennyson's The Eagle clearly shows an emphasis on appreciating nature
• Possible symbolic/allegorical meanings of the eagle in the poem

  • Tennyson himself
  • Any proud person
  • Christ
  • The devil
  • America
  • A warning to colonial Britain about the consequences of pride
• The poem has personal and Christian/mythological or religious and political references
• The poem is basically a nature poem, praising the eagle's beauty and power
• Setting of the poem

  • Mountain rock in coastal area
• Language of the poem

  • Simple language with archaic English, colloquial language
• Format of the poem


  • Free verses, two stanzas
• Imagery in the poem

  • Visual: Eagle atop mountain, surrounded by blue sky, waves below

  Auditory: -

  Gustatory: -

  Olfactory: -

  Tactile: Eagle's claws like hands, gripping the craggy mountain
• The eagle is a male and is supposed to have masculine virtues like strength and self-sufficiency
• Perched on the high mountain, the eagle is surrounded by a circle of blue sky around his head
• The waves below look like small crisscrossing lines moving slowly toward the shore
• The craggy mountain cliff provides the perfect vantage point for the eagle to see everything below
• The eagle dives off the cliff so fast that he looked like a bolt of lightning
• The eagle may dive to find something tasty to eat below, or just to stretch his wings
• In the first line, the eagle is atop a mountain, poised to strike. He is high up where no other animal or human can go. He is alone in his grandeur (the quality of being great and impressive), with the sun and the bright blue sky forming the perfect background scenery.
• The crag/ (high steep rough mass of rock) is sharp and jagged (with rough, pointed and sharp edges), but the eagle can hold on to it. His claws look like hands.
• The cliff is so high it looks closer to the sun than to the earth.
• The eagle is a male, and it is supposed have masculine virtues
• "The Eagle" by Tennyson


  • It is one of Tennyson's shortest poems
  • It is composed of only two stanzas, with three lines each