Abstract As famous British Poet Laureates, Alfred Tennyson and Ted Hughes both have created eagle images. However, the one under Tennyson’s pen is firm and persistent with a sort of loneliness and sorrow while the eagle under Hughes’ pen is brutal and proud. Aiming at analyzing the two poems’ thematic meanings and different emotions in two totally different historical times, this paper is going to compare Tennyson’s “The Eagle” and Hughes’ “Hawk Roosting” at the angle of eagle images. The eagle in the former is emphasized with a color of Nostalgia to express the poet’s desperate mourn over his best friend’s death while the hawk in the latter as a brutal killer and a tyrannical controller is written to be the symbol to represent human power.

Keywords: “The Eagle”; “Hawk Roosting”; eagle image54467

摘要阿尔弗雷德·丁尼生与泰德·休斯同为英国著名的桂冠诗人，并且在各自的诗歌作品中对“鹰”形象都有过塑造，但是丁尼生所描绘的鹰坚毅与雄健之中又带着一丝孤寂和哀伤之感，而休斯所描绘的的鹰凶残骄傲。本文拟从鹰意象的视角出发，对丁尼生的《鹰》和休斯的《鹰之栖息》比较分析，以探寻在截然不同的历史时代背景下，两首诗歌通过同一意象的所体现出的不同主题意义和内心情感。前者中的鹰侧重于一种怀旧色彩,表达诗人对其挚友的悲痛的哀悼，而作为残暴的弑者以及专横的统治者形象，后者中的鹰是人类力量的象征。

毕业论文关键词：《鹰》；《鹰之栖息》；鹰意象

Contents

1. Introduction..1

2. Literature Review 2

3. “The Eagle” and “Hawk Roosting”....3

3.1 Nostalgia in “The Eagle” and Human Power in “Hawk Roosting”...3

3.2 The Lonely Eagle and the Arrogant Hawk ...5

4. Different Eagle Images in “The Eagle” and “Hawk Roosting”...7

4.1 Pattern Styles ....7

4.2 Ecosystem and Egoism......8

5. Analysis of Reasons for Different Eagle Images ...9

5.1 Historical Conditions ....9

5.2 Private Elements ...10

6. Conclusion..12

Works Cited.......13

1. Introduction 

Alfred Tennyson, once the first Baron Tennyson, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) (1809–1892) is Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Northern Ireland during the time of Queen Victoria's reign and has been regarding as one of the most popular British poets until now. In 1827, he was admitted into Trinity College, Cambridge, where Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam and they admired each other at once and started a lifelong connection since then. Alfred Tennyson began his poetry writing when he was a child. His first published work received poor reviews, but his series of poems upon Hallam's death, collected in In Memoriam, attracted Queen Victoria. They first met each other in April 1862, as Victoria wrote in her diary, “very peculiar looking, tall, dark, with a fine head, long black flowing hair & a beard, — oddly dressed, but there is no affectation about him” (Hope, Charles 69).Tennyson met the queen again almost twenty years later and the Queen told him how comforting In Memoriam A.H.H. had been. As a productive poet in Victorian age, he created 499 poets during his life, 131 of which are collected in In Memoriam A.H.H as one of the greatest elegies in British literature.

Ted Hughes, Order of Merit (1930–1998), life of whom was as dramatic and extraordinary as his poetry, was deemed as one of the greatest poets of the 20th Century. Hughes was married to Sylvia Plath, an American poet, from 1956 until her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30. She left Hughes with their two kids to take care of. The misfortune was far more than this. His next love, Assia Wevill, also killed herself and even their daughter, Shura. After wandering between Devon and Ireland in the 1960s, Hughes married again in 1970 and settled down in Devon. In 1984, Hughes was favored as British Poet Laureate. In 2008 The Times ranked Hughes fourth on their list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945” (The times: 98).