Poem #5: The Eagle

The Poem: The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born on August 6, 1809 at Sommersby, Lincolnshire. He had died on October 6, 1882 at Aldworth. His loving wife's name is Emily Tennyson. Alfred has won an Chancellor's Gold Medal. He had four siblings. One sister and three brothers. He was home schooled by his father up to the age of 18, then he attended school at Cambridge University for four years.Alfred had a lifelong fear of mental illness. Relatives from the family has a mild form of epilepsy. He has made about 1842 poems, but in all of his poems, "Poems" made him famous.

PERSONAL RESPONSE:

The words in this poem made it can of difficult from me understand. Yes, this poem is very short I like it. I like how the poet made the lines in each stanza all rhyme. The rhyme scheme of this poem is AAA-BBB. The poet had a good choice of diction. The poem seems so alive and wonderful. While I was reading this poem, I pictured myself as an eagle way up high in the sky. I am on the end of a very high mountain looking down. I am not the type of person who is afraid of heights. I would maybe feel a little nausea looking down, but I want to know the feeling of an eagle. That feeling when you feel you're on top of the world. Feeling the power and confidence in oneself. I would feel superior if I was the eagle. I would like to watch everyone below me and just observe them.

The poet gave personification to the sea. Giving details about the atmosphere around the eagle. I have a mental picture in my head when I read the line with the word azure. I have always wanted to be a bird. I never liked walking on foot all the time. I wonder how it feels like to have wings and soar through the sky. The wind brushing against my feathers. If I was a bird, I would live in the tallest tree and make a nest there. Over-all I really did love this poem. I think that the poet has a talent in poems.

TP-CASTT

Title: The title probably already tells what the poem is going to be about. The poet might have describe a eagle.

Paraphrase:

He holds on the cliff with crooked claws

Way up high so feeling lonely

The eagle is surrounded with the blue sky

Lines of waves of the sea beneath him

He watches from high in the mountains

The eagles swoops down

Connotation:

1. Structure- Stanza length tercet, Rhyme scheme- (AAA BBB), Meter- Tetrameter, Punctuations- semicolons and periods

2. Speaker- Observer of an eagle

3. Figurative Language- Alliteration- "He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" Personification- "The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;" Simile- "And like a thunderbolt he falls." 
4.  Imagery- sight (crooked, lonely, azure, wrinkled, mountain, thounderbolts), hear (none), hear (none), smell (none)

5. Repetitive- none

Attitude: The tone of the poem is admiration, amused, surprised, and amazed.

Shifts:

First stanza (3 lines) gives details of the eagle being alone way up there.

Second stanza (3 lines) talks about the movements of the eagle swooping or crawling.

Title: The title informs us that it would be about an eagle. The eagle is the main subject.

Theme: An eagle on top of everything feeling superior. The perspective of an eagle.

REFERENCES (APA-6)

Tennyson, A. (1842). The Eagle. Poetry Foundation. Website. Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174589