The Eagle (a fragment)
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.
Commentary
For sheer concentrated imagery this poem is hard to beat - I especially like lines 2 and 3. Tennyson is reported to have said that while people have written better poetry than he has, no one has written poetry that sounds better, and I’m inclined to agree with him - for other lovely examples, read ‘The Brook’, ‘Break, break, break’ and ‘The Lady of Shallott’. (The latter two may be found online at
http://library.utoronto.ca/www/utel/rp/authors/tennyson.html#poems; if anyone knows where to find an online copy of the former do let me know.)
I have, incidentally, seen at least one version in which line 1 reads ‘hooked hands’, suggesting that Tennyson revised the poem at some time. ‘Crooked’ is by far the more accepted version, though.
Biographical Notes
Relevant extracts from
<[broken link] http://mirrors.org.sg/victorian/tennyson/tennybio.html>
Since Tennyson was always sensitive to criticism, the mixed reception of his
1832 Poems hurt him greatly. Critics in those days delighted in the
harshness of their reviews: the Quarterly Review was known as the "Hang,
draw, and quarterly." John Wilson Croker's harsh criticisms of some of the
poems in our anthology kept Tennyson from publishing again for another nine
years.
[...]
The success of his 1842 Poems made Tennyson a popular poet, and in 1845 he
received a Civil List (government) pension of £200 a year, which helped
relieve his financial difficulties; the success of "The Princess" and In
Memoriam and his appointment in 1850 as Poet Laureate finally established
him as the most popular poet of the Victorian era.
By now Tennyson, only 41, had written some of his greatest poetry, but he continued to write and to gain in popularity.
[Prince Albert's] admiration for Tennyson's poetry helped solidify his
position as the national poet, and Tennyson returned the favor by dedicating
"The Idylls of the King" to his memory. Queen Victoria later summoned him to
court several times, and at her insistence he accepted his title, having
declined it when offered by both Disraeli and Gladstone.
[...]
Tennyson suffered from extreme short-sightedness--without a monocle he could
not even see to eat--which gave him considerable difficulty writing and
reading, and this disability in part accounts for his manner of creating
poetry: Tennyson composed much of his poetry in his head, occasionally
working on individual poems for many years. During his undergraduate days at
Cambridge he often did not bother to write down his compositions, although
the Apostles continually prodded him to do so. (We owe the first version of
"The Lotos-Eaters" to Arthur Hallam, who transcribed it while Tennyson
declaimed it at a meeting of the Apostles.)
Criticism
We still look to the earlier masters for supreme excellence in particular directions: to Wordsworth for sublime philosophy, to Coleridge for ethereal magic, to Byron for passion, to Shelley for lyric intensity, to Keats for richness. Tennyson does not excel each of these in his own special field, but he is often nearer to the particular man in his particular mastery than anyone else can be said to be, and he has in addition his own special field of supremacy. What this is cannot be easily defined; it consists, perhaps, in the beauty of the atmosphere which Tennyson contrives to cast around his work, molding it in the blue mystery of twilight, in the opaline haze of sunset: this atmosphere, suffused over his poetry with inestimable skill and with a tact rarely at fault, produces an almost unfailing illusion or mirage of loveliness.
– Edmond Gosse, “Tennyson,” in the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica
— Martin
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
POETPEAR · 11 February 2000
I have used this poem as an introduction to poetry for tenth graders for about ten years. The marriage of sound and sense, especially imagery, can be used to initiate students to the techniques of poetry. In asking the students to respond to the poem, I ask them to create a word ‘snapshot’ of each line, considering composition of the image, perspective of the viewer, and suggested use of color. The correlation between the phonetic character of the sounds and the quality of the students’ perceived images is remarkable. In each case, the ‘harsh’ lines beget harsh images; the ringing R’s of the third line elevate the eagle to regal status; the long vowels in the final line sompel students to create ‘active’ two dimensional pictures. A great poem.
kuchic 3 · 1 July 2003
I’m a 9th grader from Heritage Christian School and I went on the internet to understand the last line in ‘The Eagle’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. When I found a page it showed that you were a teacher and you have read the poem. So I was wondering if you could help me understand the last line when it says “And like a thunderbolt he falls” Does that mean he’s flying away? Or does he mean that he just falls and hits the bottom? Thanks.
Martin DeMello · 8 July 2003
Tennyson was referring to the eagle’s rapid, swooping descent (as, for example, when diving upon its prey, though he doesn’t say so explicitly). The imagery is of power, speed and suddenness.
martin
jspanier · 26 September 2003
The poem also works as an allusion to Zeus (eagle and thunderbolt). Attributes of the impressive, and deadly, eagle are attributes of the King of Gods as well.
Drew Hood · 2 October 2003
I am currently in 1102 English at Indian River Community college. We were asked by our professor to determine the theme for this poem. Could you please help me?
Drew
Matthew LeSaint · 8 February 2004
I hate this poem and I hate poetry. Why is it so important that we have to learn about it. I am serious. people who right about what they feel but don’t say it outright is just stupid.
Sarah Istead · 2 December 2004
i’m doing my homework and i’m just wondering when was this poem(eagle) wrote.
McGillicuddy Colin · 29 March 2006
To Matthew, who is irritated by the indirectness of poetry
When I was a younger man I shared your feelings and frustration. But I found myself studying a lot of poetry in university when I was in a hurry to finish a 4 year degree in 3 years - the poetry courses had less reading than the others, so I could take 6 at a time instead of 4 or 5. I found that the more I read it, the more I began to understand it.
Two things to bear in mind. First of all, poetry is about emotion and ideas, much of which is extremely difficult (if not downright impossible) to communicate in prose. Secondly, like all literature it only makes sense in the context of other literature. Which is to say that the more you read, the better reader you become. I think it was Eliot that used the term “The Sacred Wood” - the metaphor that individual works of literature are like individual trees in a forest. In and of themselves they may “mean” little, but the relationships between them all is a source of unnumbered meanings.
I hope you will not give up reading, because one day the light is going to turn on and all of a sudden you will find that allusions come unbidden to you everywhere you turn.
Colin McGillicuddy
Principal
St. Thomas Aquinas RCSS
124 Dorval Drive
Oakville, ON
L6K 2W1
PH:FAX:
tom · 11 June 2006
I think the theme is power or at least that is the most explicit theme I can see. Im not sure im studying it now in year 9 to prepare us for the techniques used in poetry at GCSE
Danielle Blynn · 27 September 2006
I like poetry!……………
Rosa A.Ojeda Ayala · 24 February 2007
I understand this is not a fragment of the poem; it is the poem itself. I first read it like forty years ago, when working on my bachellor’s degree, and still remember it. It is really very powerful.
Dr. Rosa A. Ojeda Ayala
Professor
University of the Sacred Heart
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Brian Cotgrove · 2 October 2007
Whilst walking back home from the rail station this morning the poem “The Eagle” came back into my mind and I just had to look it up on the net.
As a boy of ten years of age, back in 1948, it was a task set by my teacher, to memorise this poem and recite it at assembly.
It just goes to show how ones brain can be like a computer with all of this stored on the harddrive.
Why the button should have been activated in my mind while walking home is anybody’s guess.
Brian Cotgrove.