ANALYSIS
1. Title: This poem has a short, simple title, The Eagle. This title lets us know exactly what the subject of the poem is about. The thought of an Eagle brings the ideals, majestic, graceful and powerful to mind. The eagle is literal, but can also be representative of something or someone else.
2. Tone: The speaker is observing the Eagle from afar. His/Her tone is that of astonishment, and awe at the magnificent beauty of the creature
3. Theme: This poem conveys the theme of man versus nature, and of his struggles. Man is high and mighty, and fights with all his might, but as all, must have a fall.
4. Rhetorical Devices: There is Alliteration at the beginning with the letter “c,” depicting a sort of harshness. In the second line, there is alliteration in “lonely lands” to emphasize his solitude. The author uses personification and human-like diction to describe the eagle and its surroundings. This shows how everything in the poem is symbolic for humans and human society, and makes the eagle easier to relate to. There is simile at the end, it compares the eagle falling fast to a thunderbolt, depicting the swiftness and power of its descent.
5. Syntax: The poem is very short, and shows how powerful a message can be even with such few words. There is parallelism between the two stanzas. The last sentence of each stanza contrast with one other, showing how one moment “he stands” and the next moment, “he falls.” This also shows contrast between the two worlds. The one above where the eagle resides and the rest of the world below.
6. Imagery: The first line of the first stanza depicts how the eagle is desperately clinging onto the edge of the cliff. The world above is described as being high above, bright, and vast, yet lonely. The sea beneath the eagle is not of importance to it. The eagle is shown to be magnificent and bold, even as he falls.
7. Symbolism: The eagle represents a high-ranked and powerful man, who belittles everyone. The ocean represents society who is lower and weaker than him, who are less magnificent and “crawl” beneath him. As the Eagle clings onto the “crag” and “standing” represents that like clinging onto one's greatness and life, while the eagle’s fall (literal) symbolizes man’s figurative fall.
8. Rhyme Scheme: The poem uses the end rhyme pattern AAA BBB.
QUESTIONS
1. The expression of “crooked hands” describes the eagle’s claws as hands, giving him a more human appearance. “Close to the sun” and “ringed with the azure world” depicts the marvelous image of the eagle’s world, symbolizing the high-end part of society that is above everyone else. “Wrinkled” and “crawls” represents the rest of the world, that is literally lower than the eagle. “Like a thunderbolt” shows the eagle, grand, even as it falsl.
2. Another contrast besides the “he stands” and “he falls” between is that the former stanza describes the world of the eagle above, while the other stanza describes the world of the ocean below. The former stanza interprets the eagle as being human, then the second stanza depicts the ocean and the eagle’s surroundings as being human.
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