Hi everyone, this is Usha Pandit, your Mindsprings English teacher. Today, I have
got you something new. We're going to
do Poetry. Poetry is like a piece of art
A lot of people try to paraphrase poems.
So, what they do they do? They try to
understand. What is the meaning of the
poem? And they try to make it into
sentences and therefore they destroy the
beauty of the poem.  So poetry is -
supposed to be done in a very different way
and I'm going to show you how to do it.
I am going to show you how to read
poetry, and how to analyze it and how to
appreciate it, ok?  So today I have chosen a
very simple poem for you.
it has six lines and 39 words. Just 39
words. It's a  famous one I'm sure you've done
this in school. The Eagle by Alfred Lord
Tennyson. It's one of those very many
classic poems that lots and lots of us
do in school. so I've chosen that one
and it's just 39 words and 6 lines, and
see what the poet has packed into it.
So, because poets use 39 words, or a hundred
words, they're not writing a novel see?
So those 39 words, or hundred words
or you know the economy of words
as we say, that is, they are very
very miserly with the number of words
that we they use.  And therefore, each word
we need to weigh properly.  We need to
look at each one carefully, and say what
is the weight of meaning that is there in
each word that the poet uses. This is
very important.  If you don't do that, you
miss out on the beauty of the poem. So
let's read it first. The Eagle by
 by Alfred Lord Tennyson
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. Very simple
small poem. So how do we do this? If
you look at it, one of the first things you
should be doing is, looking at the title
of the poem. So the title tells me  It's about an eagle
right? And then the title tells you it's
about an eagle. One of the things to do
is to think about what do I know about the eagle? Any poem that you pick up, ask yourself
what do I know about this? So, if it's
called the Daffodils, what do I know about
Daffodils?
If it's called The dog? What do I do
about the dog?  so you if it's called 
The museum or The moon or Grandmother's
story, whatever the title, ask yourself
what are my first impressions? and what
do you get for the eagle? Plain speak.  Plainspeak meaning nothing  heavy, nothing symbolic,  
big meaning nothing there is nothing
the first things that come to
my mind. I think he's the king of birds,
everybody understands that. Sharp eyes
isn't it?  Very sharp eyes. What's the eagle
famous for? Very very sharp
eyes.  He sees better than we do.
talons - strong.  The muscles of the of the
legs, very strong. I believe they
can even can give a small sheep, and fly
away. That's how sharp it is. And then you
have strength and speed. Speed is another
thing. So the eagle flies right on
top,
and then it's got such sharp eyesight
that it can look down, and then swoop
down and pick up a
fish and go away. It's that quick and that
sharp.  So that's my plain speak.
I might also think about what's its
diet? then what is its habitat? where does
it live? so I will get a lot of
information about the title by just
using my own understanding, common sense,
and previous knowledge, Now, I read this
poem.  Is it about an eagle? Yes. So I can
see their mountain, so I know yes, it's
about, you know, that's part of what I
knew already.  and the sea
beneath him crawls, so yes, he's flying
over the sea, and then he watches from his
mountain walls, and then he like a thunderbolt he falls. So it's making some
sense to me, but I'm saying what's all
this fuss about? Okay, so he's flying over
the sea and then he falls like a thunderbolt.  Why is he falling? Now, if I knew
about his diet,  I would say maybe he saw
a fish and he's falling very quickly to
catch the fish. This might be. But I am
still wondering what's all this fuss
about with this poem.  So let's look at
the symbolisms. Bow what happens with
poets is that  they try to pack a lot of
wonderful meaning into these few words
that they use. So a lot of meanings are
symbolic. so let's look at the symbolic
meanings.
So symbolically, all of this would
translate to mighty. King means regal.
Isn't it there's a particular attitude
about the eagle?
He's observant. He's a loner. He's sitting
right on that mountain top so far away
from everybody else. So there's a loneliness
attached to him. He's awe
inspiring. The eagle is  something. An
eagle  came and sat somewhere in your yard and every one would kind of go and look at it and
say Wow what a bird! The way it's
beak is and the way its whole face is, then
the whole demeanor of the
eagle is extremely royal, right? And
then you have there you have symbolic
connotation with countries or cultures.
So the Bald eagle is the national symbol
of the USA. And garuda is our own
symbol of the mythological bird. Garuda is  also the national airline of, I think
of Indonesia, so there are lots of
cultures that venerate the eagle
therefore, eagle is  very
sacred for a lot of people. So, we have
all these impressions of this eagle when
we are looking at this poem and we need
to kind of activate all these
impressions in our mind when we read the
poem on the eagle. It will help. Now the
other thing I have to talk to you about
is in all poems, there are what we call
word clusters. Word clusters are words
that stick together, okay? So when the
poet is point is using 39 words, if he has
repeated four words in that, over and over
again, the same word, it means it's very
important isn't it? So therefore you need
to start looking at word clusters.
What are the clusters that we find in this
poem? so you look at the verbs.
There seems to be a lot of verbs
in this poem. He 'clasps' the crag with
cooked hands, the sea beneath him crawls so
there is  'crawls' and then there is 'watches' and
then there is 'falls' and then there is
'stands'. A whole bunch of action words or verbs. Now if you look at  all the verbs
what is the one verb that does not seem
to fit the eagle?  Clasps? strong. Stands?
strong. crawls? doesn't sound very good 
worms crawl, and all sorts of creatures crawl
watches? good one. falls? good, decisive action.  So this one, 'crawls', seems to be
out of place. And what is calling there? the
sea. The eagle is not crawling, the sea is
crawling. so there is one contrast there in 
those verbs with crawls ok?
You have a nature cluster.  When you read it, the first thing
that strikes you is that there are a lot of nature words.  What are the nature words? you
have 'sun', isn't it? you've got 'lands'. Then what do you have? The 'azure world'.  Azure is blue and therefore sky.
What else do you have have?
you've got the 'sea'.  There you got the
'mountain' see? And then you've got the 'thunderbolt'. 
Can you see all those words? and they
stand for different spaces. So you've got the land, you've got the sea,  you've got the
mountain, you've got the rain  and the thunder
and the fire of the thunderbolt, and then
you've got the sun.  Again fire. So you've
got this earth, water, fire, sky,  your main
elements have come into this. So
therefore, there is, what we call, cosmic
imagery. why cosmic? because it's about
the cosmos. It's is not ordinary
imagery.  It's not leaves, and plants, and
fruits. It's sun, and lands, and sky, and
sea, and mountains, and thunderbolt. The fire of the thunderbolt.  It's got everything.
And does it match the regality
of the eagle?  When we are talking about
they eagle, and we call the eagle regal,
 mighty, and awe inspiring, again, this
whole cosmic imagery seems to add to the eagle, doesn't it?  And because he's used
those words, it attaches itself to the
Eagle's personality, and makes the eagle
bigger and mightier than he would be
be if he were  seen as just a bird. So it's not
just a bird, it's a symbolic bird of
might. So that's what word clusters
will do for you. It will allow you to
look at abstractions. It will allow you to
look at the symbolic meanings of very
ordinary things. So we've got
cosmic imagery there. And then look at
these emotions. One emotion that stands
out is the  loneliness because it's
written there 'in lonely lands'. The loneliness
is one emotion of the eagle that
you find in this poem. Then what else do you have?
Then you have this word 'ringed'. Ringed. 
Ringed with the azure world he stands.
So where the eagle is standing, you can almost put a ring round that. Ringed with
that world and the eagle in the
middle. So what is it? It's like
framing the eagle, isn't it? It's a
snapshot of this mighty eagle ringed with
the sky like that around it. 
so again the might and the awe inspiring
nature of the eagle is re emphasized. So you've got ringed and then you've got
this word 'beneath'.  See  this word 'beneath'. The wrinkled sea... look
at word 'wrinkled'.  what does wrinkled
show? What is normally associated with
the word 'wrinkled'? Age.  isn't it? Age, wear and tear,
something that's not very attractive..  all
these things. So when you look at poems,
study the words properly, and ask
yourself What does it mean? What does it ...
these words.... want do they connote? Connote meaning, what are the  emotions, ideas, meanings
attached to that word. The world 'wrinkled'
shows me age, wear and tear, unattractive
probably ready to die. that sort of  very
unattractive imagery. The wrinkled sea
beneath him crawls.  Beneath. Again, does it emphasize the kingship of the
eagle? because it is the sea. What is crawling beneath him? They are not  worms, the sea, the
ocean, is crawling beneath him.
Look at the might of the bird. So over and over again
you have this emphasis
on the eagle's kingship simply by the kind
of words that the poet has used. We can
'crawls' and 'ringed' and 'beneath' we've looked at that. And then
'watches' so  observant. Now through the entire poem do you see movement, huge amounts of
movement or do you see stillness? That's
what you've to ask yourself. I'm going to
read it again. He clasps the crag with
crooked hands. 'crooked'
watch that also. Crooked hands. Close
to the sun in lonely lands -  up there! Ringed
with the azure world he stands. Is there
movement? No. It just seems to be standing
there. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls. He watches from his mountain walls. Still
there is absolutely no movement and then
in the last line.... And like the Thunderbolt
he falls!' So what has happened now? That sudden speed.There is a suddenness.
Unanticipated, sudden movement that shows a huge amount of speed.  So what has the
poet done? very short poem..... he's kept it
still, and that last line he has created that
speed for you by sheer contrast. That's
what he has done. It's absolutely brilliant.
Now let's look at the devices.
So you immediately find that there is a
personification. How do we know ?Addressed as 'he', 'he' 'him'.  His mountain walls.
Look at the ownership. He owns the mountain.  The sea is beneath
him. that's the that's the might of the
eagle. so you got this 'he' repeated over and
over again. Strong personification. Strong
ownership of cosmic spaces.
That's what this you find there. So you
have an alliteration. 'Clasp the crag with crooked' The cr cr cra sound.
Is it rough or smooth?
Therefore, the eagle is in a habitat
that is very very rough. So then you have
'lonely lands' again an alliteration.
you will find a few alliterations here and there - very musical and yet, very
powerful. You have repetitions, and you
have the last one there. It's  a simile.
And like a Thunderbolt,  likening the eagle  to a thunderbolt. What does the Thunderbolt
stand for? Fire, rain, electricity, might of
nature, very strong might of nature that
almost destroys trees, houses, sometimes
entire villages, depending upon how it
strikes. So the power of the way in which
the Eagle drops down to the earth.
after sitting and is watching for so long. So
this is your poem. If you appreciate it like this,
now suddenly this poem has become
amazing hasn't it? Otherwise, when you
are reading it you are saying okay what's a big deal? it's about some Eagle sitting
somewhere and then he falls down to take
some fish. But because the poet created cosmic
imagery, because he used a whole bunch of devices, you suddenly find that the might
of the eagle is very strong in your mind.
In future, when you quote this poem,
will quote it with pride, you will quote it with   ownership, you'll quote it with a sense
of affection and say what a poem that
was! The Eagle. When you come the mood, the  mood is
always sitting inside the poem. Mood is
not what you feel,
mood is what the poet has created. So
what sort of words has the poet used?
Strong. Powerful. Mighty. Hasn't
been used that sort of words? And therefore,
the mood is one of energy. The mood
is one of  tremendous energy, very positive and
celebratory of this amazing bird - the eagle.  So I hope
you enjoyed that. Thank you very much for
listening. In the description box make
sure you go to our  website and an entire
section on poetry in Writing with Ease.
Do buy the book. Subscribe to our channel.
So until we meet again,
keep reading poetry, and enjoy yourself.
