Analysis of an English Poem The Eagle from the Perspective of the Metafunctional Functions

Alfred Tennyson is regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. He succeeded Words worth as Poet Laureate in 1850. This paper is an attempt to study the poem "The Eagle" by Alfred Tennyson from the perspective of metafunctional functions in Halliday's systemic-functional linguistics. This study not only shows how a functional analysis can provide insight to the study of the English poem but also tests the applicability of systemic-functional linguistics in analyzing and appreciating English poems.