The poem's phrase 'more rapid than eagles' draws on a time when birds of prey offered an intuitive image of extreme aerial speed. An audience in 1823 had no Mach numbers or familiar concept of supersonic flight. Reading the line only through modern technical categories therefore makes it seem stranger than it would have to its first readers. That mismatch supports a historical-method point: evidence makes more sense when read forward from the assumptions and vocabulary of its own period.
Notable Point · 11:14-12:33
Reading historical speed claims in their own context
The phrase 'more rapid than eagles' shows why technical descriptions need the reference points available to people in 1823.