The Eagle by Alfred Lord

Tennyson

Fpoem
Slide 3 contains link to audio recording of the
 The Eagle by Alfred Lord
Tennyson
• Key terms:
• Rhyming triplets
• Themes: • Personification
• Natural power • Alliteration
• Natural/animal beauty • Assonance
• Unspoilt natural • Iambic/trochaic metre
beauty • Point of view
• Frailty
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 The Eagle: Content/meaning
What is this
stanza saying?
What is the
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; eagle doing?
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
What is the
poem talking
about? The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
What is this
stanza saying?
What does the What is the
eagle do in this eagle doing?
line/what
happens to it?
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 The Eagle: Form and
Strucutre 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.
Which point of view is
each stanza told
from. Imagine filming
the scene described 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. The Eagle: Language
What does it
suggest about the Crag means
eagle and its rock
surroundings?

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Holds on tight,
suggesting
This is an example of ownership?
__________. What does it
suggest about the eagle?

F
 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.

Heraldic term for

Still, comfortable
What could this blue -> Heraldry
and calm in his
mean? links to nobility; is
lonely world
the poet stressing
the nobility of the
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eagle?
 The Eagle: Language
What does crawls
Why would the sea
suggest? Think
look ‘wrinkled’?
about height and
Think about point of
power.
view.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls, Ownership
implies power
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

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? What are the connotations
like 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 Falling down dead. An

predator. An example of example of nature’s frailty
nature’s power. 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…”

F
 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
• Key Themes • What poems could
• Natural power you compare this
• Natural/animal beauty with?
• Unspoilt natural • GC: Difficult Birth,
beauty Field mouse
• Frailty • SH: Perch, Death of a
• What could you add Naturalist, Storm on
to this list? the Island
• Pre1914: Inversnaid