Student Question

From whose perspective is 'The Eagle' written? Does the perspective change?

Quick answer:

The poem "The Eagle" by Alfred Lord Tennyson is written from an observer's perspective, providing a detailed, close-up description of the eagle. The observer's viewpoint allows them to describe the eagle's actions and surroundings vividly. Although the spatial perspective broadens in the second stanza to include a wider panorama, the narrative perspective remains consistent, focusing on the eagle's majesty without shifting to another observer or the eagle itself.

Expert Answers

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The poem 'The Eagle' by the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson is written from the point of view of an observer as we can see by the lines

'He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.'
We get the impression the nature-watcher is fairly close to the magnificent bird of prey, as he is able to describe it close-up ('hands' and later on 'falls.') Yet he or she must also have viewed it from a distance as to see it hurtle from a great height involves being able to see the whole episode, perhaps from the bottom of the crag. The second stanza continues with that perspective but it seems to pan wider, to include us (the readers) in the whole panorama as it takes in sky, heaven, sun seeming almost to encompass the whole world. So spatial perspective does change but it is the narrator taking us with him into the world of the eagle, not his personal opinion or another observer, or the eagle, coming in to give us their angle on it. The eagle remains the subject.

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