English Literature

Symbolism became one of literatures earliest devices in representing ideas, theories and practices. Though this term was first coined out by French and Belgian artists and authors of the 19th century, this was already used by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his many poems including The Eagle which was apparently published in 1851.

The poem which is composed of only six lines perfectly illustrated the rules of alliteration, assonance and metre in poetry. Perfect rhyming is also one of every Tennysons characters in creating his masterpieces.

Following Lord Tennysons success after publishing his In Memoriam in 1850 and The Eagle which was included in his seventh edition of Tennysons poems in 1851, both received national recognitions in the midst of the Victorian Era. Tennyson became so popular then that he even surpassed English Poet Laureate William Wordsworth and was hailed by the English monarch, thus awarding him the title Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Tennysons genius is evident. It just happened that most of his masterpieces dwell into the darkness of pessimism and melancholia. Nevertheless, the genre of Lord Tennyson that vividly portrays loss and mortality seemed to be his inspiration in coming up of the infamous 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.

Summing it all, The Eagle defined how was it being Lord Tennyson, being him as successful as that. He described The Eagle using a male strength by using the pronoun He in the poem. This could mean him as the narrator, dominating the melancholic lands-all powerful-embodied in the first three lines.

He symbolically described fame the wrinkled sea that crawls beneath him knowing him to be a typical silent artist who would rather spend time in the mountains rather than the limelight of showbiz would hate the fact of being ran after by many people.

The mountain walls he mentioned could mean where he stands then. This could be the point of being famous in every place of Europe. He was exceptional and he was not used about of being talked and being critiqued based from what I am inferring now. The point he lastly claimed his fall seemed to be irrational. This refers to the last line of The Eagle.

Tennyson simply came to be irrational when he said like a thunderbolt he falls. This hyperbole seemed to be absurd after all the adrenaline rush he incurred to his readers. What was his status then Was he not that happy being successful and sustaining this line Its indeed irrational.

But, for the ones who havent read anything about Tennyson, this last line of the poem would definitely look absurd for them. But the way he set the force h in narrating the eagle to its downfall could significantly mean about Tennysons innate melancholic disturbance. This could mean that despite of every piece of fame he had then, Tennyson vulnerably had to think falling down and being lost, being a failure sometimes and this was in spite of his world-known success. He was trying to normal after all.

All in all, The Eagle tries to captivate what is in every one of us. Its a call-could it be for the successful or not-to see how falling hurts. Its just only in the way how we should perceive falling because like an eagle, in spite of its famous strength and ferocity, its still fall, land down and sometimes die.