The Eagle

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

This poem is all about tan eagle. The first stanza (verse) is about the animal itself. The eagle is atop a mountain, poised to strike. He is high up where no other animal or human can go. He is alone in his grandeur, with the sun and the bright blue sky forming the perfect background scenery.

The second stanza shows the only action of the eagle. The first and second line show that, as he watches from his high perch, the sea moves below him. Then, in the final line, the eagle makes a grand dive towards the sea. The poem ends here, with the reader not quite sure why the eagle dived off his mountain roost.

For your challenge this week we would like you to write a poem, in the style of 'The Eagle', about a chosen animal. It would help to find a picture of the animal and create a bank of words before you start. Jot down some adjectives to describe it, how it looks, smells, feels, sounds and maybe research where it lives and how it moves. 

First stanza (verse):

Concentrate on the animal itself. How does it look when it is still and watching? Describe how it looks or feels. 

Second stanza (verse):

Think about the action of the animal. How does it move? How does it behave? Does it like being by itself or around other animals?

In both stanzas the last words of each line rhyme (hands, lands, stands and crawls, walls, falls)

Before you start writing your poem think of 3 rhyming words for each stanza. An example of how you might plan out your work is below:

Extra challenge

Have a go at writing an acrostic poem about your chosen animal. Acrostic poems spell out a word with the first letter of each line and each line usually only contains one word or a short phrase. For example:

Decent

Outstanding

Guardian

or

Dangerously cute

Obscenely fluffy

Great big softie