"Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes

“Hawk Roosting” by Ted Hughes

“Hawk Roosting” is written in six regular stanzas, each consisting of four lines. The poem seems to have a regular metrical pattern, as it is laid out in regular blocks. However it does not appear to fit a specific rhyme scheme. The visual presentation of the poem on the page is known as its typography. In “Hawk Roosting” each line of the poem is marked with a capital letter regardless of sentence grammar. In metrical poems there is a tendency for each stanza to end with a full stop, but this is not he case in “Hawk Roosting”. The poem only shows this aspect in the opening two stanzas and the final stanza. The poem is mostly written in short sharp sentences, which makes the language and images more powerful and direct. This can be seen in the last stanza, where each line is a short sentence:

“The sun is behind me.

Nothing has changed since I began.

My eye has permitted no change.

I am going to keep thins like this.”

As can be seen above, the language and the images in the final stanza are more direct and powerful. There is a simple direct style of writing with constant use of everyday language throughout the poem. For example, “I sit in the top of the wood”, “The sun is behind me”, and “I am going to keep things like this”. However in order to suit the character of the Hawk, Hughes uses rather more sophisticated or elegant expressions such as “There is no sophistry in my body” and “Inaction, no falsifying dream”. The hawk connects with us intellectually, as these phrases make us think about their meaning. The hawk also uses some arrogant phrases such as, “The convenience of the high trees”, “of advantage to me” and “for my inspection”. These help emphasise the proud attitude of the hawk. These phrases also show us that the hawk wants to impress us. There is a lot of emphasis on the fact that it is the hawk himself who is speaking. For example, “I” is the first word of the poem. The poem is written in the first person in the present tense, as if the hawk is talking to us now. For example, “I sit”, “I kill” and “I hold”. These help make the poem more immediate and powerful, because we feel as though the hawk is addressing us directly. The poem is about the hawk’s thoughts, in particular about how perfect and great he is.

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There is no human element at all in this poem and so it is solely the hawk that represents nature. He represents nature with his power, and because of his high rank he expresses himself in a formal way. The hawk’s attitude to life is direct and aggressive, and so direct language is used. The hawk expresses himself in short concise sentences to make the language powerful and direct. For example, “The sun is behind me”, “Nothing has changed since I began”, “The allotment of death”, and “I am going to keep things like this”. Most of these sentences are short and use simple language. This creates direct powerful images, as there is nothing else in the sentence to distract or confuse the reader. The vocabulary used in the poem is a mixture of ordinary and unusual words such as “I sit in the top of the wood”, “the rough bark” and “the allotment of death”, “sophistry in my body”.

There are many powerful images in “Hawk Roosting”, which help to reflect the character of the hawk. For example, the hawk is presented as being aggressive, ruthless and barbaric which is expressed through the violent image “My manners are tearing off heads”. This image presents the hawk as being violent and shows him being in control. The sentence is short and direct. Other images such as “I am going to keep things like this”, and “the earth’s face upward for my inspection” show the arrogance of the hawk. When awake and in sleep the hawk also likes to “rehearse perfect kills”. The boastful hawk also sees the height of the trees, the air’s buoyancy and the sun’s heat as things arranged especially for his convenience. He sees the whole of the earth as his own, which can be seen in the line, “The earth’s face upward for my inspection”. This personification of the earth shows the hawk in control of it like a king. The hawk is presented as a God like figure.

The general tone of the poem can be noticed throughout the play. The hawk is proud of who he is and shows this through the images and the tone of voice. When read aloud the poem sounds like a politician’s speech, because the hawk wants to impress people. The tone changes through the play with the different ideas and attitudes that are created. For example, there is a hard and brutal tone in the line “My manners are tearing off heads”. The hawk speaks emphatically and is confident that we will find him as fascinating as he does himself. This can be seen in the lines,

“It took the whole of Creation

To produce my foot, my each feather:

Now I hold Creation in my foot”

There is an arrogant tone of voice in lines such as “I hold creation in my foot” and “the earth’s face upward for my inspection”. The last line, “I am going to keep things like this” also shows the hawks arrogance in the way that he believes that it is himself who controls the things around him.

"Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes