The Eagle
Just six lines, built like a coiled spring. Tennyson sets his eagle atop the world in monumental stillness — the sea far below merely “crawls” — then releases everything in one final plunge, on a verb that may mean a strike, or a death.
Theme
power
4 poems
power
My Last Duchess
A Duke’s refined monologue reveals jealousy, control, and a chilling confession.
Mont Blanc (Selected Excerpts)
In “Mont Blanc,” Shelley tests the sublime as a pact between mind and mountain — perception making grandeur legible.
Ozymandias
A shattered statue in an empty desert, and a tyrant’s boast — “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” — turned inside out by time. Shelley’s sonnet is the supreme poem of power’s impermanence, and quietly a poem about art outlasting empire.