The Eagle by Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson was a British poet. He was the Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu".

This is a very short poem of six lines which describes a bird, an Eagle. The poem has 2 stanzas 3 lines each. These are rhyming triplets with iambic meter. The poem starts with the description where Eagle is holding on a rock with his hands. He is on a height from where it seems sun is near to him. The hill on which an Eagle is sitting is on such a height that he is the only one there. Those mountains are lonely lands. Eagle is also surrounded by the azure view of a world.

In second stanza again there is mention of the height where Eagle is standing. From that height sea is looking wrinkled and crawling. Sea is not wild with high waves. From the mountain Eagle is looking at something. May be it is his prey. Here poet has used “his mountain walls”, to indicate that Eagle owns that height and mountain. At last he falls like a thunderbolt. We can assume that he is falling on his prey to catch it. The poem ends when Eagle is falling like a thunderbolt, presumably on his prey.

Here poet talks about the high ambition and aim of an eagle. Here poet wants to convey the message to the humans, also to have the high ambition like an eagle and aim which can never miss. Reach at the level where no one else can and maintain that position.

Thank you.