Tennyson was often referred as one of the main representatives of poetry during the Victorian era due to his growing popularity both during and after his time.
Although Tennyson has a reputation of a quiet, polite Englishman among other literary figures, he was once part of a small group who traveled to the border of Spain to deliver money and messages to Spanish Revolutionaries.
This mountain range on the border of France and Spain came to be his favorite place, along with the nearby valley called the Cauteretz.
Tennyson's use of alliteration in the words clasps, crag and crooked (/k/) in the first line is meant to sound like a melody and makes it harder to pass over.
The "wrinkled sea" is indicated to be the common mass, "crawls" – trembling before the ruler, and that he watches everything happening from his high position.
"And like a thunderbolt he falls" can be interpreted in two ways, Due to its title, the poem is generally considered an incomplete piece of work.
"The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls" shows how the government needed Catholics, based on Tennyson's writing.
"Like a thunderbolt he falls" represents how the eagle, or Catholics, needs to stay strong and separate themselves from the beliefs of the English government.