A poem to think about

Reflecting on our discussion today about feminism (and gender in general), I was reminded of a poem I studied in highschool. It is a fragment from "The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

After reading through this poem, our teacher made us read it again, but with the 'he's replaced by 'she's:

She clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, she stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath her crawls;
She watches from her mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt she falls.

Strangely, changing the character from male to female made me see it completely differently, which both surprised and shocked me. I remember wondering why the character seemed more vulnerable and almost tragic being female, though strong and fiercely independent as a male (this led into quite a long discussion about gender stereotypes). Although this perception has changed somewhat over the years, it is still interesting to consider how an audience can perceive characters in a piece differently according to their gender.