Freedom

The bird soaring in the sky has always been used as an example of freedom from the bonds of gravity, which anchors plants, people, and most animals to the earth. The eagle in this poem is pictured "close to the sun"—another symbol of highflying freedom that is not controlled by the limitations of the earth's atmosphere. This area of the sky, just inside of and barely contained by the "azure world" of outer space, is what is meant by "lonely lands." Loneliness implies detachment or a lack of responsibility to any other thing, while referring to the eagle's perch as a different land once more enforces the idea that it is free of the rules and constraints that govern the lands of the earth. He is not, however, completely detached: as the poem's first words put it, the eagle "clasps" onto the side of a mountain. This...