The Eagle by Alfred Lord
Tennyson
Slide 3 contains link to audio recording of the poem
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The Eagle by Alfred Lord
Tennyson
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Themes:
Natural power
Natural/animal beauty
Unspoilt natural
beauty
• Frailty
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Key terms:
Rhyming triplets
Personification
Alliteration
Assonance
Iambic/trochaic metre
Point of view
The Eagle: Content/meaning
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
What is the
poem talking
about?
What is this
stanza saying?
What is the
eagle doing?
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
What is this
stanza saying?
What is the
eagle doing?
What does the
eagle do in this
line/what
happens to it?
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The Eagle: Form and
Strucutre
Which point of view is
each stanza told
from. Imagine filming
the scene described
Which syllables are
stressed (have a
‘heavy’ beat) in each
line?
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.
What is the effect of
the change of view
point?
Rhyming triplets;
showing the eagle and
the natural world are in
_________
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Find the alliteration
and assonance.
What does it
suggest about the
eagle and its
surroundings?
The Eagle: Language
Crag means
rock
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
This is an example of
__________. What does it
suggest about the eagle?
Holds on tight,
suggesting
ownership?
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The Eagle: Language
Near to heaven?
Making the eagle a
god-like figure?
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
What could this
mean?
Heraldic term for
blue -> Heraldry
links to nobility; is
the poet stressing
the nobility of the
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eagle?
Still, comfortable
and calm in his
lonely world
The Eagle: Language
What does crawls
suggest? Think
about height and
power.
Why would the sea
look ‘wrinkled’?
Think about point of
view.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Ownership
implies power
Walls of the cliff, makes it sound like
a building/home. The Eagle is a
home in its surroundings
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The Eagle: Language
What device is used here?
like
What are the connotations
of this word?
God-like power
Natural power
(destructive and beautiful)
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
2 possible
meanings
Swooping down to hunt. The
predator. An example of
nature’s power.
Falling down dead. An
example of nature’s frailty
and the circle of life
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Summary
• Tell your partner what the poem is about.
“The key message of this poem could be
seen as…”
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Summary
• Go for
language, structure or form
points
• Explain them to your partner
“An interesting feature in this poem is…this
suggests…”
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Summary
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• What poems could
you compare this
with?
• GC: Difficult Birth,
Field mouse
• SH: Perch, Death of a
Naturalist, Storm on
the Island
• Pre1914: Inversnaid
Key Themes
Natural power
Natural/animal beauty
Unspoilt natural
beauty
• Frailty
• What could you add
to this list?
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