At 3.00 am this morning I was listening to a podcast of an interview with Mark Simos (I'm not a bluegrass fan, but he's an interesting guy). He was talking about Peter Gabriel's song 'Solsbury Hill', and said that the Eagle in the song is a metaphorical eagle.
This phrase appealed to me so much - lots of ideas and pictures in my mind straight away!
First my head went straight to the little poem The Eagle, by Tennyson:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
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.
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
So much information in so few words. I can clearly see him above his blue world, with his grasping talons:
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| www.alaska-in-pictures.com |
There are more than 60 species of eagle, most of them found in Europe, Asia and Africa. Only 2 species, the Bald and the Gold, occur in North America. Tennyson was in the UK, so his Eagle wouldn't have been a bald one.
They fascinate me because most are larger than any other raptors except vultures. They have very large hooked beaks, strong muscular legs and extremely good eyesight.
Eagles have been used by a great many countries as a national symbol, including
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| Nigeria |
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| Russia |
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| Armenia |
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| Mexico |
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| United States |
eagle-eyed.
spread-eagled
Beautiful
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| www.kingfishermanor.com |