... topic. But they are two very different things .The topic or subject of a passage is what the passage is about. Main idea and theme,on the other hand,are what the writerwants to say about that ... take anotherlook at the poem you read in the pretest, The Eagle”: The EagleHe clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled ... Tennyson, The Eagle,” 1851This poem is about an eagle, so an eagle is the topic of the poem. But that is not the theme of the poem. Mainideas and themes must express an attitude or an idea;they...