What does the alliteration “clasps the crag with crooked hands” in the opening line draw attention to?


The Eagle

by Alfred Lord Tennyson (excerpt)


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.

Athe difficulty of the bird holding onto the rock

Bthe size of the rock on which the bird sits

Cthe tiring body of the old bird

Dthe sharp and powerful talons of the bird