By Drs. M. Nababan, M. Hum
Abstract
Literature constitutes a paradox. On one side it seeks ambiguities, with the assumption that the more interpretations an expression has, the more it is valued. On the other side, literature, laden with these ambiguities, is capable of presenting the very nature of things, which science overlooks or deems unnecessary. Textbook writers have some means in their disposal to make their ideas clear. They can draw pictures, make lengthy definition, etc. However, literary writers have only words to exploit for the purpose; but with this limitation literature is able to arose awareness of and appreciate existence, indirectly promoting appreciation of life, which is the ultimate aim of reading literature. In line with this feature of literature, Cleanth Brook (1949: 9) states that the language of art is never direct. Imagery is a literary device used to demonstrate this “indirectness.” It is a representation through the language of sense experience (Sound and Sense: 49). It vividly tells readers through analogy, symbols, and other means as to how a thing sounds, feels, smells, touches and looks like, to the effect that the readers feel as though they faced the realities.
This paper looks into the imageries in poem The Eagle by Alfred and Lord Tennyson to see what types of imageries are found in the poetry and how they are presented. The poems are analyzed on the light of the New Criticism, which examines nothing but the words in a text to see their interrelationship to make a unity. Muller and Willis in Ways In (1994:56) is convincingly proven true when he asserts that poetry would not be poetry without imagery. Of the 39 word poetry all the lines bear imagery, and all the words but function words call for attention. Identified imageries are visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, conveyed through personification, simile, metaphor, and other figures.
Key words : imagery, representation, analogy
Introduction
Apparently the language of literature contains contradictions. On one hand, it highly values multiple interpretations. The more interpretations an expression contains, the better it is. On the other hand, in spite of its subjectivity to different interpretations, the language of literature is, at the same time, able to vividly portray existence. Textbook writers have some means to clarify their ideas. They can draw charts, explain terms, offer definitions, prepare manuals, etc. To match this for the idea, literary writers (here poets) are restricted to only few a words to exploit. Furthermore, Russian formalist in its Defamiliarisation theory, sponsored by Shklovsky, defines literature as “deliberate crimes committed to ordinary language Luxemburg, 1989: 34).” According to this view, the language of literature is basically an ordinary language, but it is already tampered with: the word order is turned up side down; words are falsely sliced off and appended’, etc. Surprisingly, however, these inconsistencies turn out to be consistent. It is deliberate. It is patterned. Still in line with these features of literature, Cleanth Brooks, a proponent of the New Criticism, proposes that the language of literature is never direct (1947: 9).
Despite these ambiguous, inconsistencies’, and indirect nature of language of literature, it should have the power of presenting the very intimate reality of things, including those commonly overlooked or uncared for by general perception. It is these qualities that the poet in this paper tries to draw readers’ attention to. To the layman, textbooks and encyclopedias, the Eagle, the subject of the poem by Alfred and Lord Tennyson, is powerful, having keen eyes, habituating wilderness with high elevation, agile and savage. But no information is given as to how powerful and savage it is; how keen the eyes are; and how high the place it might inhabit. This paper looks into the imageries in poem above to see what type of imageries are found in the poetry and how they are presented.
Review of Literature
Imagery is a representation through the language of sense experience (Perrine: 49). Imagery comes from the word “image” which means ‘mental picture or idea’. Thus imagery is a description or representation as perceived by the mind’s senses. It is visual, if it is appealing to the mind’s eye, auditory if appealing to its ear, olfactory if appealing to its means of smelling, and tactile if the description can evoke the reader’s experience of touching the object in question.
According to Roberts in his book Writing Themes About Literature, Imagery is a verbal comparison of one or more objects or emotional states with something else (143). He further states that the comparison is based on analogy, and it is presented through personification, metaphor, simile, symbol, and other figures.
Methodology
The poem is analyzed on the light of the New Criticism, by applying its Close Reading technique. This technique examines nothing but the words in a text, with an assumption that in a good literary work each part is absolutely essential and nothing could be eliminated without damage to the work (Roberts 1977: 97). The poem is presented in its original form, followed by its paraphrase, made simply as an aid to the analysis. Words are closely perused, with awareness on particular features of literary language mentioned above. At last, all the imageries are classified based on what sense of the mind each imagery is appealing to.
The Poem in Its Original Form
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.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
The Poem in Narrative
An Eagle perches atop a cliff, claws clasping the rocky edge. High above the blue sky, the fowl is alerted by a possible prey, moving on the sea water far below. It glides and swoops to snatch it in a crashing sound.
Analysis
/He clasps the crag with crooked hands/
The use of personification throughout the poem referring to the eagle is an effective devise to impress the eagle’s attributes in the readers’ mind, and to invoke their experience about the creature. Personification is obvious in the poem with the use of personal pronouns ‘he’, and the corresponding pronouns ‘him’, ‘his’ together with human qualities ‘stand’, ‘hand’ that go with them. In ordinary use, the pronoun ‘it’, ‘its’ are used for animals and inanimate things.
Undoubtedly, man is superior to other beings for having the power of the mind. Man rules the world, not other beings or animals. With the use of personification, the eagle with its power and other attributes, deserves admiration. It is not something to be overlooked and underestimated. As man rules the world, the eagle rules the wilderness, as implied in loneliness ( 2), azure world, (3) his mountain walls (5)
Furthermore, the word ‘clasp’ denotes precision, certainty, firmness, and strength, a clasp being a mechanical object. The bird grips the rock lest it slips down as it leans forward watching and ready swoop for the prey. This visual imagery evokes a reader’s experience of having ever seen such a bird, carrying its prey dangling (we falsely think) precariously from its claws, but hardly ever falls down. One may vividly imagine a tiger or lion clasping fast its prey in its jaw until the latter dies. In addition, the use of ‘hands’ in ‘crooked hands’ is consistent with the pronoun ‘he.’ Rather than claws, the word hands is used, because the bird has been personified, and hands are more vital: it has more functions. People work with their hands not with their legs. The use of hand for ‘leg’ is then a metaphor, and is used for visual effect.
‘Crooked,’ meaning bent or curved, conveys a visual effect and has an impression of being rough, savage and hard working. It is true, according to science book, the back toes of the bird bend forward. This contributes to the eagle’s menacing nature and its harsh habitat, the wilderness. Crag refers to a stony cliff, a convenient spot for eagles to perch and swoop for its prey. In sounds and in meaning, crooked and crag go together and lend to the formidable nature of the eagle.
/Close to the sun in lonely land/
This line indicates the solitary nature of the eagle, its independence, and its ability to soar high into the sky (close to the sky) and perch. This visual imagery presents that the eagle can perch high atop a cliff in the sky. The expression very, very high, or extremely high would not parallel ‘close to the sky’, for the latter triggers the imagination that the sky is clear, bright, and therefore really hot and uncomfortable to human being. The Challenger, and other U.S shuttles, that have circled the earth are never said to have been close to the sky, because no one can see it in the celestial high. The expression should lend more to the eagle’s nature of being solitary and independent. If the sky is cloudy, it would not be apt to say ‘close to the sky.’
‘In lonely land’ These fowls dwell and strive in places where preys are likely, like in open spaces, hills, mountains and valleys. ‘Lonely’ implies that the eagle is alone, no competitors. And because it is far atop a cliff, he looks even lonelier.
/Ringed with the azure world, he stands/
As said before, the sky is clear and the eagle is very high. It follows that he is engulfed by the blue sky. He is like a speck in the spacious, limitless blue sky. ‘He stands’ is another conformity with the quality of human. In normal use, for birds ‘perch’ is used rather than ‘stand’, but it would not fit the word ‘he’. Furthermore, the word ’stand’ implies being alert, watchful, like a guard watchful for possible harm to his master.
The following two lines are deliberately presented with the reversed order, simply to show logical relationship.
/He watches from his mountain walls/ /The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls/
It is true. The eagle is alert. He saw something moving on the sea surface, caused by a moving prey, possibly a fish or snake in /the wrinkled sea beneath him crawls/. Another metaphor is identified here. The tipples look like crawling.
‘He watches from his mountain walls’ contributes to the solitary, formidable, and independent natures of the bird. ‘Wall’ is a metaphor and signifies toughness, crudeness and stiffness. So barren and stiff is the cliff it looks like a wall and menacing. Furthermore, no one, even a tycoon, is said to have appropriated a mountain. One may own an island, or forest but not a mountain. But as said before, this is to underscore that there is no other significant competitors around, as if the mountain belongs to it (him) alone.
But alas, is there anything going wrong? Does he slip and fall down, as it seems to be in the last line /like a thunderbolt, he falls/? If it did, it would be counterproductive with the superior attributes that have been successfully developed so far, because fall signifies mishaps, accidents. Careful analysis proves otherwise. Falling means going down in a straight line. But falling in the poem means going down, swerving right and left, like the speed of a thunderbolt. Why does the eagle crash like a thunderbolt as it falls? How big and heavy can the biggest eagle be that it crashes as it falls? What really happens is that the eagle glides and swoops (like the speed of a thunderbolt), not flapping the wings (descending) to snatch the moving prey on the sea water. So magnificent and fast is the eagle gliding and swooping that it looks as if he were falling. What is more, he generates its speed, so fast until it exceeds the speed of natural falling that it causes a crashing sound.
Conclusion
From the analysis above some conclusions can be drawn. The very short poem is rich with imageries concerning the eagle. Most of them are visual and auditory conveyed in personification, metaphor, and simile. Though not explicit, these are among other things and situations that a trained reader may see through his mind senses. He sees (visual) the bird perches, leaning forward, then glides and swerves, and not flapping the wing, swoops and dives, and crashes splashing the water (visual, tactile, and auditory) to a catch moving prey. He also sees the hot cloudless sky, the quiet but treeless, awesome, granite-looking cliff. Thank to its dominant personification, the portrayals become more vivid and convincing. To end with, the intensity of imageries in this poem is a proof that imagery is an indispensible element in poetry, as Muller and Willis state in their book Ways In (956) “Poetry would not be poetry without imagery.’
This paper was presented and published at Semirata Seminar at the University of Sriwijaya July 23 2009
This paper was presented and published at Semirata Seminar at the University of Sriwijaya July 23 2009
