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The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Slide 3 contains link to audio recording of the poem
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The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Key terms:• Rhyming triplets• Personification
• Alliteration• Assonance• Iambic/trochaic metre• Point of view
• Themes:• Natural power• Natural/animal beauty• Unspoilt natural
beauty• Frailty
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The Eagle: Content/meaning
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
What is the poem talking about?
What is this stanza saying? What is the eagle doing?
What is this stanza saying? What is the eagle doing?
What does the eagle do in this line/what happens to it?
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The Eagle: Form and Strucutre
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Which point of view is each stanza told from. Imagine filming the scene described
What is the effect of the change of view point?
Which syllables are stressed (have a ‘heavy’ beat) in each line?
Rhyming triplets; showing the eagle and the natural world are in _________
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The Eagle: Language
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Find the alliteration and assonance. What does it suggest about the eagle and its surroundings?
This is an example of __________. What does it suggest about the eagle?
Holds on tight, suggesting ownership?
Crag means rock
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The Eagle: Language
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
What could this mean?
Near to heaven? Making the eagle a god-like figure?
Heraldic term for blue -> Heraldry links to nobility; is the poet stressing the nobility of the eagle?
Still, comfortable and calm in his lonely world
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The Eagle: Language
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Why would the sea look ‘wrinkled’? Think about point of view.
What does crawls suggest? Think about height and power.
Ownership implies power
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
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
What device is used here? like
What are the connotations of this word? God-like power
Natural power (destructive and beautiful)
Swooping down to hunt. The predator. An example of nature’s power.
Falling down dead. An example of nature’s frailty and the circle of life
2 possible meanings
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Summary
• Tell your partner what the poem is about.
“The key message of this poem could be seen as…”
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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
• What poems could you compare this with?
• GC: Difficult Birth, Field mouse
• SH: Perch, Death of a Naturalist, Storm on the Island
• Pre1914: Inversnaid
• Key Themes• Natural power• Natural/animal beauty• Unspoilt natural
beauty• Frailty• What could you add
to this list?
![Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson [with accents]](https://img.pdfslide.net/doc/110x75/589c40091a28ab8b4a8b5a4b/early-poems-of-alfred-lord-tennyson-with-accents.jpg)
