Eagles

Lord Alfred's poem of an eagle waiting for prey is a perfect example of a marriage between sound and sense. The rhyme scheme in this poem is that the very last word in each line rhymes with each other. For example, "hands/lands/stands" and "crawls/walls/falls." The poem begins with the strong image and sense of a strong bird grasping strongly on a steep rugged mass of rock projecting upward. Line 2 portrays the eagle standing close to the sun, meaning it is high up in the mountains and solitary untouched by humans. The eagle is shown surrounded by a clear daytime majestic sky. Underneath the eagle, line 4, is " the wrinkled sea", implying the waves of sea that he hovers above. In line 5 the eagle is portrayed to having possession of the mountain because he watches for his pray from his large protecting mountain walls. The poem ends with a rapid and sudden reversal of the tranquil imagery of the eagle in its grand habitat with a strong sound of a thunderbolt. The eagle dives after its prey that it has been watching from above. Lord Tennyson Alfred uses anthromorphism, making the eagle almost human like.

Walt Whitman describes the playful flirtation and mating of two eagles on an azure sky. The poem begins with a farmer walking by the river resting, and then suddenly with much sound and vividness he hears a barely audible flirtation. Line 3 describes with sense the rush of the sexual love and desire the two birds have when in contact. It continues describing the mating process of the grasping and interlocking of the claws. The mating is describes with strong words such as clinching, living, and fierce. The mating is done in a revolving spin in the air. Whitman uses the word beating to give the sound and sense of a constant movement of wings swirling in the mist of the air. The two birds seem to graciously tumble down falling rapidly making a strong union and then suddenly there is a lessening of activity. Whitman illustrated

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