"The Eagle" by Lord Alfred 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.
Lord Alfred Tennyson's "The Eagle" is a short poem about an eagle perched on top a mountain, [assumingly] stalking its prey down below. Tennyson perfectly uses a combination of personification, imagery, and simile (including several other elements of figurative language) to portray the bird, and the scenery surrounding it, in such vivid detail. To start off, he begins his poem by depicting the bird as being alone, clasping onto the side of a mountaintop with its "crooked hands," almost as if it was next to the sun. Here, Tennyson describes the eagle as holding onto the cliff face with its "hands," instead of simply saying 'with its claws.' By personifying the bird like this, he is able to compare it to that of a human being, making it seem like something much more important than that of a simple bird. Beneath the eagle is a sea, "wrinkled" in its form and "crawl[ing]" in its flow. These examples of personification and metaphor give the reader a better understanding of what the eagle sees as it looks down. Suddenly, as it watches from the mountainside, the bird dives toward the sea "like a thunderbolt," presumingly to catch a fish that caught its eye. The simile Tennyson uses to describe how quick and abrupt the eagle is in this action perfectly fits the predatory prestige of this bird of prey. Lord Alfred Tennyson uses figurative language in such a way that it elevates the stature and significance of the eagle, and is able to do this in such a short, but meaningful, poem.
Lord Alfred Tennyson's "The Eagle" is a short poem about an eagle perched on top a mountain, [assumingly] stalking its prey down below. Tennyson perfectly uses a combination of personification, imagery, and simile (including several other elements of figurative language) to portray the bird, and the scenery surrounding it, in such vivid detail. To start off, he begins his poem by depicting the bird as being alone, clasping onto the side of a mountaintop with its "crooked hands," almost as if it was next to the sun. Here, Tennyson describes the eagle as holding onto the cliff face with its "hands," instead of simply saying 'with its claws.' By personifying the bird like this, he is able to compare it to that of a human being, making it seem like something much more important than that of a simple bird. Beneath the eagle is a sea, "wrinkled" in its form and "crawl[ing]" in its flow. These examples of personification and metaphor give the reader a better understanding of what the eagle sees as it looks down. Suddenly, as it watches from the mountainside, the bird dives toward the sea "like a thunderbolt," presumingly to catch a fish that caught its eye. The simile Tennyson uses to describe how quick and abrupt the eagle is in this action perfectly fits the predatory prestige of this bird of prey. Lord Alfred Tennyson uses figurative language in such a way that it elevates the stature and significance of the eagle, and is able to do this in such a short, but meaningful, poem.
