"The Lamb", "The Tyger", "Hawk Roosting" and "The Jaguar",

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William Blake and Ted Hughes

From the titles of "The Lamb", "The Tyger", "Hawk Roosting" and "The Jaguar", it seems that these poems are about annimals but it quickly becomes apparent that they are in fact much more than simple descriptions. Annimals are symbols which describe metaphors about Man. Blake uses a wide variety of poetic forms in songs of innocence and experience. Hughes (1930-1996) believes man thinks he is God compared to all other creatures, in connection to this, he wrote a poem called "Hawk Roosting."

"Hawk Roosting" consists of the whole poem being in first person- a hawk's eye view of the world. The hawk takes himself to be the exact centre of creation, assuming that trees, air, Sun and Earth were made for his convenience. "The convenience of the high trees", trees being the hawk's habitat and "the air's buoyancy and the Sun's ray", thermals for him to fly in. He then says "are of advantage to me", meaning they were made for his uses. In contrast to this, Man believes the earth is there for his advantage. Hughes explains in his poem that the purpose of creation has been solely to