lord alfred tennyson the eagle
DESCRIPTION
This presentation is a short Bio of his life and a short lesson on the poem "The Eagle."TRANSCRIPT
The Eagle
Lord Alfred Tennyson
(1809-1892)
Life
Tennyson was born on 6th August 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. The fourth of twelve children.He was the son of a clergyman. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson.
Alfred with his wife
Emily (1813-1896)
his son Hallam (1852-1928)
and Lionel (1854-
1886).
Farringford- Lord Tennyson's residence on the Isle of Wight
He is the second most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare.
• "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”
• "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”
• "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”
• "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”
• "The old order changeth, yielding place to new".
The Eagle
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alliteration
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
The hard consonant /k/ in the three words.
Could it suggest hardness of the rock and firmness of the bird?
Symbols
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Close to the sun - This could illustrate the status of a person.
In lonely lands – This could point out how lonely someone can be in this position.
Personification
He clasps the crag with crooked hands Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
azure – a deep blue sky blue colour
Simile
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
What is the effect of the simile?
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Adjectives
Tennyson used the pairing of two-syllable adjectives with one-syllable nouns to help keep the meter of the poem intact.
“crooked hands,” “lonely lands,” “azure world,” “wrinkled sea,” “mountain walls.”
Syllables
He used no word longer than two syllables until the last line.
Thunderbolt 3 syllables
It conveys power which any eagle certainly has.
Compare this poem to Ted Hughes’s “Hawk Roosting.” Why do you think both birds are portrayed with such nobility? Which poem do you think contradicts that noble appearance most? How?
This poem has references to the ancient Greek myth of Icarus.
Study that story, and explain how you think knowing it helps a reader interpret what Tennyson is saying here.
Carol Wolff