Skirting the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,)
 Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance of the eagles,
 The rushing amorous contact high in space together,
 The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel,
 Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling,
 In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling
 Till o'er the river pois'd, the twain yet one, a moment's lull,
 A motionless still balance in the air, then parting, talons loosing,
 Upward again on slow-firm pinions slanting, their separate diverse flight,
 She hers, he his, pursuing.

A rushing, soaring, stunningly kinetic poem. If Tennyson’s eagle was majestic, Whitman’s are alive, splashed across the page in a vibrant celebration of life, sex and energy. To quote from the Britannica’s assessment of his work,

“Whitman’s greatest theme is a symbolic identification of the regenerative power of nature with the deathless divinity of the soul. His poems are filled with a religious faith in the processes of life, particularly those of fertility, sex, and the “unflagging pregnancy” of nature: sprouting grass, mating birds, phallic vegetation, the maternal ocean, and planets in formation (“the journey-work of stars”).”

The language is vivid and descriptive even for Whitman - I find it impossible to read the poem and not see the eagles, spinning and gyrating against the azure¹ sky.

Links

Tennyson’s ‘Eagle’: poem #15

Other Whitman poems, including an extensive biography and assessment:

poem #54, poem #157, and poem #246.

— Martin