Lord Alfred Tennyson The Eagle

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The Eagle Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

description

This presentation is a short Bio of his life and a short lesson on the poem "The Eagle."

Transcript of Lord Alfred Tennyson The Eagle

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The Eagle

Lord Alfred Tennyson

(1809-1892)

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Life

Tennyson was born on 6th August 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. The fourth of twelve children.He was the son of a clergyman. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson.

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Alfred with his wife

Emily (1813-1896)

his son Hallam (1852-1928)

and Lionel (1854-

1886).

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Farringford- Lord Tennyson's residence on the Isle of Wight

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He is the second most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare.

• "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”

• "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”

• "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”

• "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”

• "The old order changeth, yielding place to new".

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The Eagle

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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.

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Alliteration

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

The hard consonant /k/ in the three words.

Could it suggest hardness of the rock and firmness of the bird?

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Symbols

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Close to the sun - This could illustrate the status of a person.

In lonely lands – This could point out how lonely someone can be in this position.

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Personification

He clasps the crag with crooked hands 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.

azure – a deep blue sky blue colour

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Simile

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.

What is the effect of the simile?

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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.

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Adjectives

Tennyson used the pairing of two-syllable adjectives with one-syllable nouns to help keep the meter of the poem intact.

“crooked hands,” “lonely lands,” “azure world,” “wrinkled sea,” “mountain walls.”

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Syllables

He used no word longer than two syllables until the last line.

Thunderbolt 3 syllables

It conveys power which any eagle certainly has.

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Compare this poem to Ted Hughes’s “Hawk Roosting.” Why do you think both birds are portrayed with such nobility? Which poem do you think contradicts that noble appearance most? How?

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This poem has references to the ancient Greek myth of Icarus.

Study that story, and explain how you think knowing it helps a reader interpret what Tennyson is saying here.

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Carol Wolff