"The Eagle" is Alfred, Lord Tennyson's short-but-forceful appreciation of a mighty predator. Marveling at the grandeur of an eagle and at its stunning speed and strength as it swoops on its prey, the poem's speaker has a face-to-face confrontation with the sheer awesome power of nature. "The Eagle" first appeared in the 1851 edition of Tennyson's Poems.
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The Full Text of “The Eagle”
1He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
2Close to the sun in lonely lands,
3Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
4The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls:
5He watches from his mountain walls,
6And like a thunderbolt he falls.
The Full Text of “The Eagle”
1He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
2Close to the sun in lonely lands,
3Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
4The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls:
5He watches from his mountain walls,
6And like a thunderbolt he falls.
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“The Eagle” Summary
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“The Eagle” Themes
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The Awesome Power of Nature
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Eagle”
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Line 1
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
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Lines 2-3
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands. -
Lines 4-5
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls:
He watches from his mountain walls, -
Line 6
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
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“The Eagle” Symbols
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The Eagle
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“The Eagle” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Personification
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Parallelism
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Simile
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End-Stopped Line
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Imagery
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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“The Eagle” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Clasps
- Crag
- Crooked hands
- Azure
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Eagle”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Eagle” Speaker
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“The Eagle” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Eagle”
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More “The Eagle” Resources
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External Resources
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Poems in Two Volumes — Learn more about Tennyson's Poems, the important collection in which this poem first appeared—and see images of a lavishly illustrated Victorian edition.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to the poem read aloud.
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A Short Biography — Learn more about Tennyson's life and work at the British Library's website.
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Tennyson's Obituary — Read a contemporary account of Tennyson's death—and learn about how influential and important a poet he was in his own time.
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Tennyson Today — Read an article about Tennyson's continuing influence.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson
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