The Eagle

by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Poems (1832)

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.

Heclasps the cragwith crookedhands;A

Close to the sun in lonely landsA

Ring’dwith the azure world, he stands. A

The wrinkledsea beneath himcrawlsB

He watches from his mountain walls,B

And like a thunderbolthe falls. B

Lo spuntone della roccia con mani adunche afferra;

vicino al sole negli angoli più derelitti della terra

se ne sta circondata da ogni cosa azzurra.

Sotto di lei striscia il crespo mare

che dalle pareti montuose se ne sta ad osservare,

per poi, come una saetta, a valle piombare.

ANALYSIS

  1. 1st step: FORM, LANGUAGE and RHYTHM.

Layout: traditional as for capitalization and alignment. Two rhymed stanzas. The rhyming pattern is AAA BBB.

Lines: eight syllables each, which give the poem a constant beat with some repeated words and alliterations.

The main figures of style are the personification and the simile and the main senses are the touch and the sight.

  1. 2nd step: VOCABULARY (try to define the same meaning with your own words and be ready to provide a translation into Italian)

clasps: holds on to firmly (stringe, afferra)

crag: peakof a rock (spuntone di una roccia)

crooked: bent (adunche)

wrinkled: marked by lines, depressions (rugosi, increspati)

crawls: moves slowly (striscia)

thunderbolt: flash of light accompanied by a loud noise in a storm (fulmine)

  1. 3rd step: KNOWLEDGE BASE. Reading is often a matter of meeting expectations. This means that the poets expect their readers to start making all sorts of mental images and connections as soon as they read the title. They draw on our knowledge and experience to establish a shared ground.

These are sample questions to start interacting with this short poem.

  1. Is the eagle still or in motion?
  2. Which verb or verbs make you think so?
  3. The description of the eagle in the poem, in many ways, meets the reader’s expectations. Find the lines where the author refers to the fact that…:
  1. … the eagle is a solitary creature.
  2. … it often lives in mountainous/cliff terrain.
  3. … it spots its prey through careful observation.
  4. … it can feed on fish and other marine life.
  5. … it can plunge from a great height and at great speed to catch its prey.
  1. 4th step: UNDERSTANDING MEANING. You must learn how to come to a basic understanding of explicit (which are usually given by first impressions and answer w/h questions) and implicit (what is not stated but can be deduced from the text) meanings.

This poem for example goes beyond being a purely factual passage about an eagle.

Tick the aspects of the poem which you appreciated.

  1. The bird almost seems human (he/hands)
  2. The description of the sky surrounding the bird is very beautiful and gives a sense of beauty (azure world)
  3. The description of the sea using the adjective “wrinkled”, like something very old, is effective, particularly since it is combined with the verb “crawls”.
  4. The comparison between the bird and a “thunderbolt” is dramatic.
  5. The short poem is highly musical to listen to (hands…lands…stands…)