The Eagle by Tennyson



"The Eagle" is a short poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson and was first published in 1851, when it was added to the seventh edition of Tennyson’s Poems, which had itself been published first in 1842. The first stanza of this consciously styled "fragment" poem personifies an eagle, describing its claws as "hands" and conferring upon the bird almost the status of the lonely, Romantic outsider. In the second stanza, the eagle dives upon the object it has seen far below, but which the poet does not record. Also in the poem he refers to the bird as a male, this refers to the pride. The idea of dominance he has is especially evident in line 5 where Tennyson referred to the "crags" being "mountain walls," which symbolizes the eagle guarding his "fortress."