In the poem "The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, why is the eagle referred to as a "he" and not an "it"?

The eagle is personified in Tennyson's poem. Personification occurs when human qualities are given to an object or an animal. The eagle "clasps," has "hands" and "stands" as he surveys the blue sea below. It is only natural that "he" should be referred to as a man.

Romantic poets of the nineteenth century often personified nature (see Wordsworth's famous poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" where flowers dance or Keats's "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket" where an insect is also referred to as "he"). In stanza two, Tennyson portrays the eagle as a powerful force in the world, as strong as a thunderbolt, echoing Victorian confidence. In the latter half of the century, while Tennyson was poet laureate, England was considered the strongest nation on earth so it is only fitting that Tennyson's eagle is the epitome of that vigor.