Poem Outline - Chapter 1 - "The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"The Eagle" is a majestic and dynamic poem that describes the life and flight of an eagle in an outlook that is fresh and intense.

Alliteration is used the most in the first stanza of the poem.

• "He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" (1).

The alliteration of the words "clasps" "crag" and "crooked" all have a hard "c" sound, which feels edgy and points to the hard, tough life of the eagle.

• "lonely lands" (2). 

The use of the "l" sound ties the words together to create a greater sense of how alone the eagle in in his solitary life.

The structure and rhyme used in the poem both bring the stanzas of the poem together and yet separate it into two parts as well.

• "hands" (1), "lands" (2), "stands" (3); "crawls" (4), "walls" (5), "falls" (6)

The rhyme scheme makes each stanza stick out and seem separate. The first three lines are meant to be together and so are the second three. Yet, the first and second stanza are connected by way of talking about the "azure world", the water around the eagle, and then "the wrinkled sea", also the water around the eagle.

• " He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" (1), "The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;" (4)

The first line of each stanza ends with a semicolon. This semicolon separates this sentence from the rest of the stanza, for the other two lines end in a comma and then a period. However, the sentences with semicolons set up the idea of each stanza. The first line is centered around the eagle and how he is standing and the fourth line is talking about his surroundings.

The imagery used in the poem makes the poem lively and unique.

• "close to the sun lonely lands" (2), "azure world" (3), "wrinkled sea" (4)

The descriptive words used in these quotes help to describe the world that the eagle lives in. A lonely place, desolate, and dry, due to the closeness of the sun. Yet there is the sea surrounding him, with a rich color of blue and waves like wrinkles.

• "and like a thunderbolt he falls" (6)

Just like a thunderbolt, a flying eagle is agile, quick, and sharp; it plummets towards the ground at great speeds. However, the word "fall" seems graceful and elegant, juxtaposing with the idea of a flashy, jolting thunderbolt.