The Eagle By Alfred Lord Tennyson Essay

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Analysis of The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson

A brief but powerful poem written by the great Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Eagle is an inspiring poetic piece. Tennyson, recognized as the greatest poet in Victorian England, was distinguished as poet laureate in1850. Readers from all over looked to his poems for advice on the major issues effecting their lives. Tennyson began writing poetry when he was ten and published his first book of poetry with the help of his brother, Poems by Two Brothers. In 1830 Tennyson published the first volume of verse to appear under his own name, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. For twelve years after that Tennyson took a break from writing due to death of a close friend. He returned to poetry and in …show more content…

Tennyson does this by using many words that have more than one meeting, or connotations. Each line of this poem has a deeper or symbolic meaning to it. “He clasps the crag with crooked hands”. The “he” in this line is referring to an elderly person and he is holding a “crag”, life, with his old, weak, “crooked hands”. Close to the “sun”, heaven, in the ”lonely lands”, by himself. Elderly people are always alone whether it be mentally or actually living by themselves in and old house or a nursing home. Becoming old is synonymous with being lonely. “Ringed with the azure world he stands”, is describing someone who is very much alive. He is surrounded by old people who are crippled or cannot walk, “The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls.” “He watches” the outside world from inside of his room, “mountain walls”. Then he dies, “like a thunderbolt falls.” It is obvious that this poems deeper persona is of an elderly person clutching to life but enjoying the time that he has and then perishing. Hold onto the time that you have as long as you

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