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ALFRED TENNYSON’S “THE EAGLE”
1. Summarize the poem. In your answer tell what the eagle does and what the three
SETTINGS (places) are.
(a) The eagle is first seen on a high ___________. Intently watching the sea below,
it suddenly ________ toward it. Presumably through its keen eyesight, the
eagle has spotted its distant prey, a _______.
(b) The three settings are the sky (“lonely _________” and “________ world,”
lines 2-3), the mountain, and the _____.
Note: The three settings may have influenced Tennyson’s use of ________ lines
in each of the stanzas.
2. The THEME is the central idea of a poem.
What is the theme of “The Eagle”? Explain.
(a) The versatility, power, and majesty of the ________, which can function in all
three elements: _____, earth, and ________.
(b) In the poem, everything is presented as subordinate to the eagle: It can soar
closer to “the _____” (2) than any other creature. There it excelled even
________ beings at the time the poem was written (1851).
The massive sky is seen as merely a backdrop for the eagle; it “_________” (3)
the bird which thus becomes the center of the horizon.
Moreover, the immense sea “__________ him __________” (4), words often
used to describe a servant or a beggar and thus further elevating the eagle.
The presence of the bird even turns upside down the way human beings conceive
of nature: The great bird transforms the sky into solid “________” (2),
additionally termed an “azure ________” (3).
Finally the eagle is shown to be as powerful as one of the most destructive forces
in nature, lightning or a “______________” (6).
3. Poets tend to be more attentive to the sounds of words than writers of prose, such as
novelists or essayists, whose choice of words is typically dictated by meaning or
narrative, not ________.
The most prominent sound pattern used by many poets is RHYME, which is the
regular repetition of similar stressed sounds, typically at the _____ of lines of a
poem.
(a) In the first stanza of “The Eagle,” what three words so placed have similar
sounds?
“hands” (1); “________” (2); and “_________” (3).
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(b) A study of these three rhymed words reveals that the vowel and the consonants
following the ________ are identical (-ands).
(c) However, the consonants before the -ands are ____________: h-, l-, and st-.
(d) When these three conditions are met (same vowel, _______ consonants after
the vowel, but different ____________ before the vowel), this is called
PERFECT RHYME.
Since the rhyme occurs at the _____ of each line, it is also termed END RHYME.
(e) RHYME SCHEME refers to the pattern or sequence of end-rhymed words. As a
shorthand way of designating the rhyme scheme of a poem, letters of the
___________ are used.
The first line is always labeled a; if the second line rhymes with the first, it is also
labeled a; if the second line does not rhyme with the first, it is labeled b; and so
forth.
Given this explanation, what is the rhyme scheme of the first stanza of “The
Eagle”?
_____.
(f) Most poets use the rhyme scheme established in the first stanza in subsequent
stanzas.
What are the rhymed words of the second stanza of Tennyson’s poem?
“crawls” (4); “________” (5); and “________” (6).
Although these rhymed words differ from those in stanza one, for convenience
most literary critics label the rhyme scheme of the second stanza as aaa, not bbb.
Thus the rhyme scheme of “The Eagle” is typically described as _____ stanzas
rhymed as _____.
4. Two other sound devices which poets often use involve the repetition of consonant
sounds.
(a) ALLITERATION is the _____________ of a sound (almost always a consonant
since vowel alliteration is difficult to sustain) in a stressed syllable at the
beginning of a word.
(b) CONSONANCE is the repetition of a ____________ sound in the middle or at
the _____ of a word.
(c)
Example: In the phrases, “the poor people of Paris,” the p is alliterated
________ times and is used as _____________ once, the _________
syllable of “people.”
(d) Alliteration and consonance depend on sound, not on spelling. Thus you should
rely on your ear, not your _____, in determining both.
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For instance, in Tennyson’s poem, “___________” (4) begins with a silent or
unpronounced “w.” Thus it is an example not of w alliteration, but of r
alliteration, as is “_________” in line 3.
5. Give examples of the alliteration and the consonance of the following consonants
from “The Eagle”:
(a) k (the k sound in English is oftentimes spelled with a c): Alliteration is seen in
“_________” (1), “_______” (1), “crooked” (1), “________” (2), and
“crawls” (4). The second k sound in “__________” (1) and second syllable of
“wrinkled” (4) illustrate _____________.
(b) w: “________” (3), “watches” (5), and “________” (5).
The word “_______” (1 and 3) begins with a w sound, but it is unstressed.
Alliteration occurs only on accented or stressed syllables.
There is no w consonance since the “w” in “_________” (4) is silent.
(c) l: Alliteration appears in “_________” (2), “lands” (2), and “_______” (6).
Consonance of l occurs in “_________” (1), “Close” (2), the _________ l in
“lonely” (2), the l in “___________” (4), “crawls” (4), “walls” (5),
“______________” (6), and “________” (6).
6. The words “comparison,” “simile,” and “metaphor” indicate that one person, animal,
place, or thing is _______ another in some specified or implied way.
(a) COMPARISON: One entity is like another; both are in the same classification or
group.
Example: Mary is as good a student as John.
1st class: Mary (a student).
2nd class: John (another __________).
Area of similarity: There are doubtless many differences between the two
students, but the focus in on one similarity: Both are _______ students.
(b) SIMILE: One entity is like another, but the two are not in the same classification
or group. A simile uses “like,” “as,” or “than” in making its comparison.
Examples: You ran like a deer in that race. You ran as swiftly as a deer in that
race. You seemed to run faster than a deer in that race.
1st class: You (a person, specifically a _________).
2nd class: deer (an _________).
Area of similarity: Both this track star and a deer run very _______.
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(c)
METAPHOR: One entity is like another, but the two are not in the same
classification or group. It does not use “like,” “as,” or “than” in making its
comparison.
Example: Paris is a pearl of a city.
1st class: ________ (a city).
2nd class: ________ (a gem).
Areas of similarity: The reader must supply the connotations suggested by
linking this city with a pearl, such as _________ or loveliness, brightness,
eminence, ________ or worth, desirability, etc.
(d) Poets seldom use simple comparison, preferring instead the figurative
_________ and metaphor, where things in _________ classes are compared.
In fact, the great Greek critic Aristotle defined the poet as the “metaphormaker,” that is, the writer who sees _____________ in widely different things.
7. What is the SIMILE in “The Eagle”? Explain.
(a) “Like a ______________” (6).
(b) 1st class: The ________ (a large, strong, flesh-eating bird, noted for its sharp
vision, massive wings, and deadly talons).
2nd class: a thunderbolt (a ___________ atmospheric force).
Areas of similarity: Both the bird and a flash of ____________ and its
accompanying __________ can strike with destructive _____________.
8. How is the word “hands” (1) a METAPHOR?
1st class: the hands (of a _________).
2nd class: implied ________ or talons (of an eagle).
Areas of similarity: Both are used for ___________ (1 and inferred in line 6
where the eagle presumably snatches up its prey, a _______ from the sea).
9.
PERSONIFICATION is a literary device in which human qualities are given to
something inanimate, to an animal, or to an abstract idea.
What are some examples of personification in “The Eagle”?
The word “_______” (1) as explained above and the pronouns “___” (1, 3, 5,
and 6), “____” (4), and “____” (5), which are used to refer to human beings.
An animal such as the eagle grammatically should take the pronoun “it” or
“____.” Personification seemingly elevates the eagle to ________ stature.
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ANSWER KEY
1. (a) mountain; dives; fish.
(b) lands; azure; sea; three.
Note to teacher: “azure”: the blue color of the sky on a clear summer’s day.
2. (a) eagle; air; water.
(b) sun; human; Ringed; beneath; crawls; lands; world; thunderbolt.
3. sound; end.
(a) lands; stands.
(b) vowel.
(c) different.
(d) same; consonants; end.
(e) alphabet; aaa.
(f) walls; falls; two; aaa.
4. (a) repetition.
(b) consonant; end.
(c) three; consonance; second.
(d) eye; wrinkled; Ringed.
5. (a) clasps; crag; Close; crooked; consonance.
Note to teacher: As you know, the c spelling which is pronounced as a k is called
a “hard c” to distinguish it from the “soft c,” which is pronounced as an s.
When a word spelled with a c is followed by a back vowel (a, o, u), it is
pronounced as a k (“cat,” “cot,” “cut,” etc.). A back vowel is articulated with the
tongue toward the rear of the mouth.
Words beginning with a c which are followed by a front vowel (e or i) are
pronounced as an s (“cent”, “city,” “circle,” etc.). A front vowel is articulated with
the tongue toward the front of the mouth.
(b) world; walls; crawls; with.
(c) lonely; like; clasps; second; wrinkled; thunderbolt; falls.
Note to teacher: A fourth sound pattern used in poems is ASSONANCE, basically
the repetition of non-rhymed vowel sounds in a poem. In “The Eagle” Tennyson
uses several short a words (“clasps,” “crag,” “azure,” “watches”) and long o
words (“close,” “lonely,” and “thunderbolt”). However, this assonance does
not stand out as does his use of alliteration and consonance because Tennyson,
like all poets, had so few vowels to choose from while the range of consonants is
large.
Since I did not find his use of assonance in “The Eagle” significant, I chose not to
include an exercise about it in this student handout.
6. like
(a) student; good.
(b) runner; animal; fast
(c) Paris; pearl; beauty; value.
(d) simile; different; similarities (or likenesses).
7. (a) thunderbolt.
(b) eagle; powerful; lightning; thunder; suddenness (or speed, quickness, swiftness,
etc.)
8. person; claws; clasping; fish.
9. hands; he; him; his; its; human.