Hawk RoostingAniela Baseley 13 FO The poem is written by poet Ted Hughes. In his life time Hughes has published many poems about nature and animals.

Authors Avatar

Hawk Roosting

Aniela Baseley 13 FO

        The poem is written by poet Ted Hughes. In his life time Hughes has

published many poems about nature and animals.

The poem has six stanzas, all written in the first person, with no discernable

rhyming scheme. The poem represents a hawk, as it roosts on a tree top, watching

over the world and contemplating life. This hawk sees itself, as the centre of the world

and the best of creation. He believes he controls the world, bringing death to anything

below him that dares to question his authority. The poem shows the reader that nature

isn’t always beautiful, and the hawk is a metaphor of humans, because humans

dominate the world, as does this hawk. The poem is written with a chilling attitude to

Join now!

power.

In the first stanza, the hawk is perched on top of a tree, awaiting nightfall. We

know this because the hawk is ‘Roosting.’ His arrogance is already clear, “ Inaction,

no falsifying dream”  this indicates to the reader, that even when the hawk is sleeping,

he does not dream ‘needless’ dreams. The hawk just has focus on killing. Alliteration

is then used “hooked head,” this extenuates the line with a sound, as well as the hawks

egoism and obsession with itself. “ I sit on top of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

There are attempts to analyse the poem and the writer shows some level of understanding. However, the absence of a title means that the essay lacks a focus and as a result, the analysis takes a chronological approach, often leading to a narrative summary of the poem. A focused question with a clearly planned answer would have led to a more developed analysis. Increased exploration of poetic devices (present tense, language style, structural choices to name a few) and their effects would have improved the content of the essay. It is also important to recognise that any reading of the poem, for example how it might be a metaphorical comment on power, is only one interpretation. **