The Eagle Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Eagle

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

 

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

 

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson FRS was an English Poet Laureate during Queen Victoria’s reign.  He was one of the most popular British poets.  Tennyson was born on 6^th August 1809 in Somersby England.  Tennyson and his younger brothers were very happy in spending their times in writing poetry in their teens. They published the collection when Alfred was 17.  He did his education at King Edward VI Grammar school and then entered Trinity College,

Cambridge for his higher studies.  His first solo collection of poems, “Poems Chiefly Lyrical was published in 1830.  His early poetry was full of medievalism and powerful visual images. Tennyson gave his best to the lyrical world. Works such as “Break, Break, Break”, “and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” made him an excellent short lyrical writer.  He tried his hands on plays and they were quite successful.  He enjoyed writings even at the age of 80.  He died on 6^th October 1892 at Aldworth at the age of 83.

 Summary of the poem

The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is one of the shortest poem.  But it is meant to bring out the super power of the bird. Further it symbolizes justice and masculine power, and corruption in human nature.  The power and the focus and the actions of the bird is described well with the use of alliteration and rhymes. 

 Detail Analysis of the poem

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands;”

 The first line starts with a pronoun “He” to compare the power of the bird

to human power.  A visual image of the action of the bird comes next.  He holds the crag with so much grip with his crooked hands.  The bends in his hands help the bird to hold his prey tightly.  The power of the bird is shown even in its talon’s.  “Crooked hands” is physically twisted in shape of the talons of the bird but her the poet looks at it in a different perspective as corruption and dishonesty in human nature.  The alliteration in “Clasps the Crag with Crooked hands” makes it more prominent to visualize the harsh and wild environment of the bird.

 “Close to the sun in lonely lands,”

 Again the reader can visualize the majestic figure of the bird sitting alone, close to the sun like a Godly image.  He appears very close to the sun than to the earth due to his position from his extreme height. From far it could be observed as a mighty bird who seems to be closer to the sun.  Lonely lands suggests that the bird loves to live far and in quite natural surroundings.  The power will be more when it lives alone.

 “Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.”

 The eagle is lives in his own world which is surrounded by blue color.  The color is mentioned here to show its noble nature.  He lives without any disturbance.  The nature of the bird gives the power to go against all the challenges of the nature.  He stands over the world. All below him.  The poet expresses the power and knowledge, freedom, liberty and bravery as well.

 The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

 The poet describes the nature. He brings to the minds of the readers the nature of the waves of the sea which looks like wrinkles of clothes or skin from far.  The birds sits alone very far and high and it’s a bird’s view of the waves, the poet brings out here. The waves’ movement seems to be crawling.  The words crawl make us to think of baby’s movement and wrinkles remind us old age of a person,  the poet wants to say that the human cycle cannot be completed without crawling(baby) and wrinkles(old age).  But for the bird eagle the waves are in full focus as it could get its prey.

 He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

 The bird watches from his mountain walls.  The poet implies that he is alone in his home and watches from there patiently for hours and gathers his power for his next move.  He is the ruler of his own world and his focus is on what he wants. He watches from far what is there below and around him.  He waits for the right moment and uses it and drops down like a thunderbolt from such high position towards the sea down to catch his prey.  The nature of the bird is described by the poet as a great thunderbolt as the bird shows its energetic power and quickness in his flight.  The swiftness of the Eagle shows its power and strength to hunt.

 The Eagle is a powerful bird with hooked beak and share hearing capacity and excellent eyesight. They are large birds of prey. They have strong talons to catch their prey and they build their nests on high cliffs.

 

Literary Devices

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands;” the poet starts with “He” to

make it more human like. A very close up view of the bird. It is not a personification as the comparison are animated objects.  It could be considered as Anthropomorphism (the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal or object is called anthropomorphism).  In this poem the Eagle is associated to the human character.  The word clasp has a reference to the handshake of humans with each other.  But here it refers to the grip of the Eagle to keep its balance on the rock.  Crag with Crooked hands shows the ugliness of its claws. The alliteration of “Cr” gives the proper effect to the readers.

 Close to the sun” is quite an exaggeration and we can say that as Hyperbole

 Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.  Azure means the ocean blue color of the sky.  The bird is surrounded by the blue sky.  Stands rhymes with hands and lands and make the readers to visualize the action of the bird.

 “Lonely Lands” refers that the Eagle is the ruler of the whole sky. The “O” sound brings out the Eagle’s loneliness. And the Alliteration of “L” produces a standard rhythm to the line.

 The themes of the poem are the power of the animals over man who shows himself as t

he most powerful and intelligent on earth.  Freedom and liberty and power of the natural world also can be the themes of the poem.

 The poem consists two stanzas with three lines each. They rhyme and it is called triplets.

 There is a great transformation or contrast from the first stanza to the second.  We can enjoy the beauty of the nature, the appearance of the Eagle, the focus of the bird, the calmness and quietness of the Eagle, its amazing ruling power over the blue sky.  But the second stanza differs as the poet describes the great hunting ability of the Eagle.  The Eagle shows his great swiftness and sharp hunting power.  The great acceleration of the bird is shown as a thunderbolt and makes the readers to enjoy the poem.  Thunderbolt and lighting refer to Greek mythology. The simple rhyming pattern of AAA BBB give a musical effect to the poem.

 Thank you.