• “The Eagle” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is a poem regarding how the powerful people in our society deal with the world around them. Do you agree?

Yes, I agree that “The Eagle” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson deals with how people with power negotiate with the world around them. However, the poem also deals with how those without power behave towards those with power as well.

In the poem, the eagle is a metaphor for the powerful in the world. Like any powerful person the eagle does not operate in isolation. Like John Donne said, no man is an island. Hence, the eagle has those with greater power above him and those with less power below him. Interestingly, the poet does not deal with those of equal status. By doing so, Lord Tennyson accentuates the profound isolation of the king of birds.

Before, moving on to the analysis of power relations of the eagle I would like to posit my views on what the eagle may stand for. I feel that the eagle is a metaphor for the monarchs of the Victorian Age in which Lord Tennyson lived. I believe that the eagle is an apt symbol of all the power and ceremony associated with royalty; in addition, the qualities associated with the eagle are often associated with royalty, too.   

When it comes to those entities with power over the eagle, the sky seems to be the immediate contender – the eagle stands framed by the blue sky. What does the sky represent? In literature as well as in popular belief, the sky is often associated with the heaven. According to the classical teachings of western philosophers like Plato, all living beings occupy a certain position in what is called the Great Chain of Beings. In the Christian worldview, Lord Tennyson believed in, God occupies the very top of the Great Chain of Beings, and next to him would be clergy who act as the agents of God here on earth. The monarchs come next. They are powerful but their power is derived from and is limited by the heaven and its agents. In fact in many early western monarchies, kings and queens promoted the idea of the god-give kingship in order to validate their decisions and actions. In the poem, the poet states “ring’d with the azure world he stands” – “he” being the eagle, the word “ring’d” refers to a periphery and of being limited and enclosed. Therefore, the eagle in this poem is not a free agent. There is some greater force that limits him.

The eagle in the poem stands behind a “mountain wall” and holds on to the crag with “crooked hands”. The reason for the need for defensive mountain walls and the crooked hands is those who threaten his position. As the eagle is looking down, the threat to his power seems to be coming from those below him. In the poem, the wrinkled sea seems to be the focus of the eagle’s attention. Interestingly, the eagle derives substance from the sea in the same way a monarch obtains sustenance from his citizens who provide their monarch with tax and labour. At the same time, the wrinkled sea that sustains the eagle can rise up in stormy weather and undermine the crag the eagle calls home. Therefore, the eagle has to be vigilant to remove of any threat at the very outset. Hence, in the poem, the moment the eagle notices something amiss, “like a thunderbolt he falls”. The metaphor illustrates the devastating power a threatened monarch can deploy to remove any contentions to his claim to power. 

In addition to the power relations of the powerful, the poem also offers the reader some idea about the way those without power behave towards those with power. However, the poet deliberately refrains from exploring how the powerless deal with those of their own status and with those below them. The reason for that is that the poet’s focus is the exploration of the power relations of the powerful and the powerless.          

In the poem, “the wrinkled sea” stands for the powerless. The term “wrinkled” indicates age, weakness, and infirmity – all these have negative connotation, especially when they are juxtaposed with the watchfulness and vitality of the eagle. There is only one eagle implying that there only very few powerful people where as the powerless are a vast “sea”. The powerful has to use either ideology or exert naked force to make the “sea” behave in the way they want to. Hence, in the poem the eagle is a terrifying awe-inspiring force that is ever-vigilant because of his awareness of the latent power in the masses. The eagle wants the “wrinkled sea beneath him” to continue to “crawl”. So he unleashes his terrifying energy in order to root out any disturbing presence in the sea before it could generate waves that may unseat him.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the fragment “The Eagle” is exploring the power relations at several levels quite successfully.