The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The poem "The Eagle” was first published in 1851, around the time Tennyson was on his way to becoming the
most famous British poet of his age. The poem is considered a perfect combination of sound and meaning
because in a few lines, Tennyson captures a small but majestic event - an eagle diving from a cliff — with total
precision. Even though, it is basically a nature poem, praising the eagle’s beauty and power, if you look at
symbolically and allegorically, the poem has personal and Christian/mythological or religious and political
references. You may give different interpretations such as the eagle could be a king, Tennyson himself, or any
proud person. However, when you read the poem you would be able to experience two emotions. While the first
is a sense of great height from which you can see the world below the second would be the power and strength
of the eagle. Didn’t you ever imagined that the first emotion is created by the arrangement of words and images
and the second is by the feelings generated as a result of those words and images.

However, it is a known fact that “The Eagle" was inspired by Tennyson's travels in the Pyrenees. One of the
Alfred Tennyson's favorite places in the world is the Pyrenees, a scenic mountain range on the border between
Spain and France. He especially l0ved a valley in the Pyrenees called “Cauteretz” where he frequently saw eagles,
and other birds of prey circling overhead. Did you notice that he has set the eagle on an ocean cliff not on a
mountainous side? This explains that it's not just a literal description of something that he has seen but it is an
imagined setting which he has visualized.

Do you know the reason for many who learn literature prefer to start with "The Eagle”? It is not because it's
simple, but because the poet doesn‘t hide his sack of techniques which means that he points out straight forward
to the reader what an alliteration can do or else gives a perfect example of personification, a metaphor etc.....
Nor does Tennyson hide the fact that he's distorting reality. The poem produces similarly strange visual effects. At
one point the eagle seems almost as far away as the sun, and at another the ocean looks like a person crawling
on hands and knees. Thus the poem reveals what the power of the imagination could create.

If you try to Paraphrase or to say what the poet has told in 6 short human hands lines in your language it could
be; “The cliff is so high it looks closer to the sun than to the earth. The eagle which is perched in such a high place
is clasped on to dangerous massive rocks with his crooked claws. He is surrounded by blue skies as if it forms a
"ring" around the eagle. He stands powerfully like a king. He watches the surrounding from his craggy mountain
cliff which provides the perfect vantage point for seeing and the sea beneath with his sharp sight. The fact that
the eagle is so high up that he sees the waves of the ocean like small, crisscrossing lines moving slowly towards
shore resembling [looking like] an old man because it has wrinkles. Suddenly, he dove off the cliff and shoots
downward so fast that he looked like a bolt of lightning. Most probably he may have spied something tasty to eat
below, or maybe he just wanted to stretch his wings. Either way, he's too quick for our eyes to follow.” Now you’ll
see the master of the skies! “The Eagle” has no equal in his domain. Alfred Lord Tennyson portrays this
magnificent bird of prey with its great vision, powers of flight, and powerful talons.

Close your eyes and imagine the landscape and the action this poem describes to enjoy the poem. As you can see
the poem is a short six line poem, broken into two stanzas. Each stanza is called a tercet (meaning three lines).
The rhyme scheme is a simple rhyme scheme (aaa / bbb). Let us take the first line

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands;"

The words “clasps,” “crag,” and “crooked” associate the eagle with age. For instance, “craggy,” is still used to
describe a lined, age- weathered face. The hard “k” sound that begins each of these words also establishes a
hard, sharp tenor *mood/ tone+ to this poem’s tone that fits in with the idea of the eagle’s similarly hard, sharp
life. Moreover, the words "clasps" and “crooked” could also indicate majesty, freedom and power as if the entire
mountain seems to belong to this solitary eagle.

Hope you remember that the repetition of first sounds is called alliteration, and Tennyson uses it in this short
“fragment” to convey a sense of the eagle’s situation.

The cliff is so high it looks closer to the sun than to the earth. Did you notice that the poet has never used “it” to
refer to the eagle? Instead he uses the pronoun “he” ;the poetic technique of personification when talking about
the eagle’s claws with human “hands” to let us know that the story of the eagle is not just a study of an animal in
its natural habitat but that, symbolically, he is telling us about human beings. The reason is that from the
implications of the descriptions mentioned above, we can assume that the eagle symbolizes an elderly person.
Moreover, doesn’t that give “masculine” virtues like strength and self-sufficiency to eagle?

Line 2

“Close to the sun in lonely lands,”

Can you see the bird perched high up on the mountain crag so close the sun than the earth. You may also have
come across; the bird soaring in the sky has always been used as an example of freedom from the bonds of
gravity, to plants, people, and most animals that live on the earth. Thus the eagle in this poem which is pictured
"close to the sun" is another symbol of highflying freedom that is not controlled by the limitations of the earth's
atmosphere. Further, by bringing the "sun" in to describe how high up in the air the eagle is, Tennyson uses
another poetic device known as hyperbole to associate the eagle with a sense of grand majesty. This implies that
the eagle’s self-confidence or confidence he has of its own ability. The series of action verbs; "Clasps, stands,
watches, falls" in the poem depicts the eagle's action; seems majestic and awe-inspiring.

Did you see how “l” alliteration in this line? It is ‘lonely lands’ because the rocks are high up there without any
human or other animals. What could be the effect of this alliterated sound? Could it be the superiority and
uniqueness of the authority?0r could loneliness imply detachment or a lack of responsibility to any other thing,
while referring to the eagle's perch as a different land once more enforces the idea that it is free of the rules and
constraints that govern the lands of the earth. He is not, however, completely detached: as the poem's first
words put it, the eagle “clasps” onto the side of a mountain.

However, the eagle wouldn’t have felt this loneliness because we all know that they tend to live alone. That itself
explains that it is their nature to be alone.

I hope you understood that the mountainous rock the eagle magnificently stands appears high up seeming to
touch the sun and the eagle; the observer finds himself far away from civilization in the lonely lands.

From this lesson let us try to understand rest of the lines.

Line 3
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

If you read the above line with meanings given, you will surely understand that it contains Imagery, or words that
appeal to the five senses, and the words used here are extremely visual.

For instance, the poet uses the color word "azure" means “bright blue” literally and it is a kind of deep, bright,
beautiful blue color often associated with clean ocean water. When the sun is shining, the sea appears azure, and
so does the sky which is further away from the horizon. Further, he says that this blue sky is “ringed” around the
eagle. In other words the blueness that surrounds the eagle is truly a "ring" or circle, encircling the space both
above and below him. Doesn‘t this create a very majestic image? [Try to visualize an eagle perched on a tall.
rocky mountain looking down at the sea below] The eagle sits on top, above all other life, with the sun blazing
behind him, and the backdrop of bright blue sky highlighting his profile.

It’s a pretty impressive *extraordinary/striking] visual in which the eagle magnificently stands surrounded by the
bluest sky. In short the eagle is at the very center of the bluest, most central part of the sky. Moreover, the "azure
world” could also emphasize how high and powerful he is and it is sometimes associated with a powerful king
whose head is encircled with the royal blue colour. The importance of this lies in the "crowning" of the eagle, by
the sky itself (the place where the eagle rules).Thus it could mean that the eagle is standing in a very high place
like a powerful king.

However, this image could also refer to the “azure sphere". This brings to mind not just a blue (azure) sky
reaching the horizon; it also suggests to a sense of detention. Being "ringed" could also mean “trapped”
Therefore, in spite of what line 2 says about the eagle being close to the sun, don‘t you feel that he is still bound
to this earth?

Did you notice the poetic device he has used here "he stands"? We usually do not use the verb "stands" with
birds instead we use “perch”. Then what has the poet done? It is clear that it is another example of
personification.

From this point on wards we now appear to be seeing the world from the eagle's viewpoint [angle]. Imagine that
you are the eagle. What would you see? You would only see the surrounded bright blue sky. Similarly the eagle
also sees nothing but blue all around him.

Moreover, the poet uses the contracted form of the verb “ringed” to 'ring'd" to lay emphasis on that we should
pronounce it as one syllable.

Stanza 2 - Line 4

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

This Stanza begins with the description of the world below the eagle. We discussed in the first stanza that the
height he is perched at gives more sense of power. The eagle above the mountain is like a king on his own throne.
He stands on the summit of the mountain as if he is watching sharply the state beneath him. His place is likened
to the throne of a king. He seems to be calm, but his eyes reveal his power. As I mentioned earlier we now should
see the world from the eagle's perspective [viewpoint]. We know that the eagle is looking down on the world
from a privileged position which is his lofty mountain rock and watches the water where he sees the huge body of
water moving that appears almost like it has wrinkles because the waves are so small. He doesn't see the uproar
and chaos of crashing waves: he sees only small lines on the water seeming to "crawl" slowly towards the shore
or in other words only from a great height, the sea would look “wrinkled”. The water does not rush but rather
crawls. In short now you can understand how this simple phrase has brilliantly captured the sense of looking at
the ocean from a vast distance.
Did you ever think that whether the words such as "wrinkled" and "crawls" could be used to describe a bird?
Don‘t you feel that they normally relate to people? Recall the first line of the poem, where the eagle's claws are
compared to "crooked hands." What kind of person would have crooked hands? Sounds like an older person
whose body shows the signs of old age. Well, here too you have a physical indication of old age in the image of
wrinkles. But suddenly you also have the image of an action performed by babies: crawling. What could this
means? It could be that Tennyson very subtly uses words that make us think of human life cycles. Nature carries
these cycles within it where nature is undergoing continuous decay and renewal.

What devices has the poet used in this line? The poet uses a metaphor, personification, assonance and
consonance to enhance the reader‘s experience in this line. By now you know how to identify them. The sea is
compared to an old man by using the metaphor “wrinkled sea” and the very fact that the sea “crawls” as if it has
got a human ability which means poet has personified the sea. New read the phrase "wrinkled sea beneath him”
did you notice the prominent vowel sound you hear in letters in red? It is /i/ sound which means the assonance
(repetition of vowel sound) of /i/ sound.

Can you see the consonants /r/ and /l/ are repeated in “wrinkled sea beneath him crawl“? Now it is clear that the
poet has used the device called “Consonance” here. You already know that consonance refers to repetitive
sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase at the beginning, middle, or end of several
successive words.

Line 5

He watches from his mountain walls.

Perched high in the mountain, secure in his power, he gazes haughtily at the world at his feel like a king brooding
from the battlements. Implicitly, the more we contemplate (think of) his fixed and silent form, the more we
expect some sudden movement or cry. If we pause here when saying the words aloud, we can really feel the
tension mounting up within us. We all know that the eagle is known for his fantastic vision with a sharp glance
spends most of his time looking around to find a prey and the craggy mountain cliff provides the perfect vantage
point for seeing everything below. He is like a look out on a fortress performing the passive action of watching
along with all his standing and grasping. What could he be the planning7We can guess that he could be looking
for a fish from the sea or any other prey. Did you notice that the poet has used the possessive pronoun “his” in
the phrase “his mountain” denoting an ownership? What could be the reason? Doesn‘t it denote the eagle's
omnipotent (god like) nature? He is watching everything which is happening around him from impenetrable
fortress (the mountain). It is crystal clear that no one else could even reach the walls to claim them because it is
unreachable. Therefore the walls are the eagle's territory and they his own mountain walls.

Line 6

And like a thunderbolt he falls. [The perfect Simile for the king of the skies]

This shows the power of the eagle again. His speed is immediate, like a thunderbolt. In a magnificent speed and
power, like a thunderbolt, which is the combination of a lightning strike and thunder from the sky (ln mythology,
it is associated with Thor, Jupiter and Zeus (all gods).) This shows the eagle's likeness to the gods he dives off the
cliff and shoots downward gracefully in a straight line in a specific moment. Maybe he has seen something to eat.
Thunderbolt is a good simile to describe how the poet views the eagle. Can you understand that the speaker only
could catch the eagle rocketing down towards the sea, and not the moment he jumps off the cliff? The reason
could be that your eye can only move fast enough to catch a split-second of bright light.lt quite interesting to find
out why the poet has not used verbs such as "dives," "swoops", "soars" to describe the eagle's flight. Instead of
those active verbs the poet has used a passive verb “he falls". It could be that the eagle lets gravity do all the
work. The last two words of the poem, "he falls” invites the reader to visualize tremendous size and strength of
the eagle and the action of the bird effortlessly gliding towards his prey.

Many people do not get a chance to see this glorious spectacle of nature! Nature is glorified adding to the theme
of the natural world and its wonders. We readers get the experience of how the poet encapsulates this tiny
segment of nature: a majestic eagle diving from his lofty throne like a king. Tennyson‘s youthful image is forever
venerated or remembered with complete exactness or precision.

You must have noticed that even though it is composed of only two stanzas, with three lines each Tennyson
captures a small but majestic event of an eagle diving from a cliff with total exactness. The poem is considered a
perfect combination of sound and meaning with full of figurative language and deeper meaning.

Let's look at the metaphorical language and techniques he has used to explore the idea of man and his
relationship to the natural world effectively.

Did you ever think why Tennyson has employed a magnificent bird “eagle” into his poem? What do you think it
symbolizes? Of course it symbolizes men with power and authority!

Just imagine that you have not read the poem before. If you had read only the lines given below would you be
able to guess, that these lines refer to a great bird eagle or a bird of prey in particular?

Now can you understand the importance of the title? Doesn’t the title inform us that the poem is describing an
eagle?

The narration is third person point of view providing the information as though you are watching a documentary
about the eagle. Already you may have realized that the poet does a masterful job of capturing the majestic
beauty of an eagle in this setting. Poet has used a clear, strong rhyme scheme to unify each image, and has used
poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, Imagery, and figurative language to create this vision.
The form of "The Eagle" is very neat and regular. Both stanzas are a series of three rhyming lines. So the poem is
written in rhyming triplets with a regular rhyme. The rhymes are formed from simple, one-syllable words. Thus,
the rhyme scheme is a, a, a, b, b. b.

Didn‘t you notice that this unusual rhyming triplet‘s produce kind of echo at the end of each line? In stanza one:
"ands...ands...ands”. In stanza two: "awls...alls...alls."

I have marked all the devices used in the poem. See whether you can identify them? Can you see the colour code
used?

Reread the first line of the poem given above. Did you detect the device as alliteration in the words Clasps, crag
and crooked. Each of those words begins with a hard /c/ or /k/sound. What could be the reason for the poet to
use this particular technique? It is to make emphasis and create a specific melody. Such words that begin with
"cr" or "cl" mimic the sound of hard rock’s because the landscape is hard and dangerous. Each hard /c/ makes the
reader pause and articulate as he cannot breeze through these sounds. In this way, Tennyson is ensuring the
reader pauses to consider the eagle, high up on his perch. Moreover, the poet makes use of alliteration of those
strong, solid, hard accent words to display the eagerness and fierceness of an eagle. As I said before the words
that begin with "cr" or "cl" mimics the sound of hard rock’s if you listen to the sound of loose rocks falling down a
slope, the alliteration of words that begin with "ec" and "cr" sound makes us feel like rocks clicking and crashing
into one another. The falling rock and gravel echo through an enormous open space which highlights unforgiving
landscape.

See how the poet gives very specific qualities to the main subject of the poem: the eagle. Within each line, one
can identify specific traits the eagle possesses.

What character traits do "He clasps the craig with crooked hands" show? It is obvious that it shows its possession
of strength the power of a mighty man with its aggressive inner-self, where he has the ability to strive for what he
wants. However, some interpret that his "crooked hands" represent "age" and with his age comes wisdom.

Do eagles have hands? Of course not! By calling the eagle‘s talons "hands." the poet makes the eagle seem in
some way human, although it perches on a cliff that people can't access, which in turn, makes the eagle seem
much more important than a simple bird.

Close to the sun in lonely lands

Is it possible for any being to be “Close to the sun” because the sun is millions of miles away from the earth and
it is too hot to be near? Is the eagle actually close to the sun? Not really. Don't you feel that there is an extreme
exaggeration, in the phrase close to the sun? Tennyson uses hyperbole [extreme exaggeration] to emphasize how
magnificent this eagle is and it is sitting on top of the world, where no other living being could possibly be, even
man. Further this line illustrates the eagle's ability to be isolated from all others and still survive. However in this
line "Close to the sun in lonely lands’ the poet has used another device called juxtaposition [the act of keeping
two instances close together (or side by side) is used to show how the eagle is elevated high above, near the sun
but underneath it are dead lands. This could also symbolize that the great, famous men often live lonely lives,
even though they own authorities and admirations, deep within they are barren and isolated emotionally. With
the symbol of an eagle in the poem, Alfred longs to convey the message that fame means nothing, but it will
eventually tore men away from the reality world and away from true companionship.

Reread the third line. Did you notice that it contains imagery, or words that appeal to the five senses, that are
extremely visual? Tennyson uses the colour word azure, which literally means bright blue, and this blue sky is
ringed around the eagle. This creates a very majestic image. Please try to visualize the picture looking up at this
tall, rocky mountain. The eagle sits on top, above all other life, with the sun blazing behind him, and the bright
blue sky highlighting his silhouette [outline/ profile]. Isn't it a pretty impressive visual which shows how the eagle
is looked at as all powerful, being the highest image? The very fact that he stands at the top of the world also
symbolizes his power.

Look at the metaphor (to say one thing is another) used in this line "The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls“. Sea is
wrinkled making it an old being. Don‘t you see that this line shows that the sea is bowing beneath the eagle? The
words "wrinkled" [the wrinkled sea means the waves of the sea] and "crawls" seem to personify the ocean.
Although the waves of the sea are fast, compared to the eagle, they look like a baby crawling, where sea’s
pounding energies seem sluggish and puny. The speaker tries to see the world from the eagle's viewpoint, but he
still comes up with human comparisons.

What is the poetic device used in line 6? I know that it is easy to identify. The eagle is compared to a thunderbolt
using the word "like" because just like a thunderbolt or lightning from the sky, he falls or soars into the sky
suddenly. Don‘t you feel that this is a perfect simile to describe the king of the skies?

This comparison is appropriate because it describes how the poet views the eagle. In addition to that if you can
remember how he has been setting up a contrast between the sky and the earth in the poem. Thus the 6th line
brings sky and earth together: in other words, the power of the sky comes down to earth in a magnificent speed
“like a thunderbolt”. Here, the poet only catches the eagle shooting down towards the sea, and not the moment
he leaps off the cliff. It is like if you want to look for lightning in the sky on a rainy day, you can never predict
when there will be a flash, and your eye can only move fast enough to catch a split- second of bright light. Pay
attention to the last two words of the poem. - “he falls"

Don’t you see that there is an uncertainty in last two words of the poem? You might wonder what actually
happens to the eagle at the end of the poem: does he become ill, or lose his ability to fly and tumbles helplessly
into the sea, or is the poet using the term "he falls" figuratively, to portray the quick action of a powerful bird
diving to scoop up its prey?

The poem is too short, and offers too little background for us to tell if the sudden reversal in the last line is
meant to be ironic (the feebleness of the mighty eagle) or if it continues to indicate the eagle's harmony with his
surroundings, so that his dive is expressed in terms of gravity.

Neither explanation seems more likely than the other, nor can we assume that a powerful poet like Tennyson
could have focused his readers towards one interpretation if he had wanted to. Thus it is fair to say that he has
purposely constructed it in that way. Therefore, both interpretations mentioned below may be applicable.

I. Tennyson wants us to see the eagle as both a swift hunter and a powerful bird who is invulnerable to defeat by
other forces (quite possibly human) as he can fly near the sun and higher than the mountains.

2. Furthermore Tennyson wants us to realize the fact that no matter how high you seem to be, something or
someone can still bring you down or it can also mean the inevitability of death that can strike like a lightning
anytime.
Did you notice another technique used by the poet to give out his message (theme) to the readers?

How has the poet shown the eagle‘s actions? He has used four short crisp clauses (subject-verb pairings) “he
Clasps," "he stands," "he watches," "he falls."

What could be the effect of those short clauses? Don't all these show little inactivity until he puts on a show at
the end? The eagle is male and may represent some kind of masculine ideal. Even though its actions are
described very unassumingly by pairing sounds and images in the poem Tennyson makes us feel like a speck in an
immense landscape. The eagle which is of tremendous size and strength rules here not us.

Now let‘s think about the message or messages Tennyson wanted to convey using above mentioned techniques
and devices. The most prominent theme of course is the majesty of nature where the natural world and nature is
glorified. Highflying freedom the eagle enjoys could also mean that it is free of the rules and constraints which
govern the lands of the earth. Another theme that is highlighted in this short poem is that no matter how high
you seem to be, something or someone can still bring you down which could also mean the inevitability of death
that can strike like a lightning at any time.

However, it is obvious that the poet wants to highlight the freedom and beauty of this unparalleled bird as one of
the master pieces of the Mother Nature.