Compare and contrast Hughes' portrayal of the swallow in 'Work and Play with that of the hawk in 'Hawk Roosting'.

Compare and contrast Hughes’ portrayal of the swallow in

‘Work and Play with that of the hawk in ‘Hawk Roosting’

Ted Hughes wrote both ‘Work and Play’ and ‘Hawk Roosting’, where birds play a prominent part and some similarities and differences can be found in their presentation. In ‘Work and Play’ the bird is a swallow being compared to human people and in ‘Hawk Roosting’ the bird is a Hawk where the poem is written from the hawks points of view.

Similarities between the two birds are that they are both birds where flight and free will is described in both of the poems. Another similarity is that in both poems the birds are described as weapons. Ted Hughes mentions in ‘Work and Play’ that the swallow is a ‘barbed harpoon’, which is a weapon and suggests alertness similarly to the hawk’s poem. The swallow’s beak is described using the metaphor. In ‘Hawk Roosting’ the hawk is described as killing, which is like the hawk is being a weapon. The hawk is alert, similarly to the swallow, in the first verse where the hawk has it’s eyes closed, but I think it is still alert as it says in the poem, ‘Inaction, no falsifying dream,’ so it is not asleep, but resting, ready to react if necessary.

There are many more differences between the birds than similarities. One difference between the two poems what viewpoint we are seeing the birds from. The swallow from ‘work and play’ is described in the third person, where I imagine Hughes saying it. Hughes calls the swallow a ‘she’ where as in the ‘Hawk Roosting’ we are not given whether the bid is male or female, although I think that the hawk is male, probably because of the hawk’s nature. The swallow described as she makes the birds seem gentler and more pleasant. The hawk is seen entirely from the hawk’s point of view in the first person singular. Many possessive pronouns are used such as ‘me’ and ‘I’ used to describe the hawk.

The looks of the birds are described as different from each other. There are two separate images created by Hughes for each bird, without one ever having to have seen what a swallow or hawk looks like. The swallow is said to be ‘A blue-dark knot of glittering voltage’ and ‘a rainbow of purples’. Dark blue could be a similar colour to that of the swallow. The rainbow of colours may be the different colours reflecting off of the swallow, mainly purples. These provide lovely, bright, and colourful images giving an impression that the swallow is pretty and beautiful.

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However, the hawk does not come across as pleasant as the swallow does. The hawk is described as having a ‘hooked head’ and ‘hooked feet’ with no colours used or nice descriptions, but still giving us a fair image of the hawk’s appearance. A hook is like a sharp tool which is harsh and painful if caught so the hawk could hurt something easily and it projects a cold and harsh picture of the hawk, hook sounding very similar to hawk. The impression given of the hawk is a bad, cruel one where the hawk is very fierce and tough. The hawk can also be seen as powerful with strength as the hawk mentions that it took the whole of creation to produce the hawk’s foot and each feather.

Not only is there a contrast between the appearances of the birds but also in their movement. When the swallow is in flight, it is described as a metaphor her being the seamstress of summer. ‘She scissors the blue into shapes and she sews it’ and ‘she draws a long thread and she knots it at corners’ are the words that describe her movement in the sky, which is the blue, which she scissors. Her movements come across as very flowing as if the swallow is gliding through the air, drawing a long thread and knotting it which requires soaring, high up in the sky, diving gracefully low. ‘Cartwheeling through crimson’ would be the swallow smoothly flying through the sky near the end of the day, which would be a pleasant and gentle scene.

However, all of the hawk’s descriptions on movement are revolved around death and murder. Although the hawk talks about flying it remains still throughout the whole of the poem and never actually flies during it unlike the swallow is active all of the time. So while the swallow is gliding through the air, the hawk remains sitting upon the bark of a tree. The flight is powerful and described as ‘direct’. The hawk gives the impression that everything is made for it and that he rules everything and flies unstoppably. The hawk has a forceful flight unlike the swallow’s flight where there is no large effort visible.

During the poems, the nature of the birds developed and what type of personality the birds had became apparent. The impression of the swallow is that she does not mind about her work, which she does in the summer, ‘she toils all the summer’. It seems that she would never complain, as she is hardworking, making her work appear easy as if she is playing. Unlike the Hawk, the world does not seem to revolve around the swallow; she merely fits in with her surroundings going about her daily life that is necessary. The hawk is very selfish, arrogant and self-centred. It thinks that it controls the whole world and everything in it because it says, ‘My eye has permitted no change,’ so it obviously thinks that since it has been around nothing has changed and everything is about it and for it. The hawk says that ‘everything is mine’ so he kills wherever he wants. The hawk seems to feel that it has more control than the swallow. Before it took the whole of creation to produce the hawk’s foot, now however it holds creation in it’s foot. The world is facing it for the hawk’s inspection, showing more control. The swallow shows her control in the way she is described flying in the sky, making shapes with the way she moves. The swallow from ‘Work and Play’ lives by the sea and the beach above them in the air where there is lots of open space for her to flow gracefully, in contrast to where the hawk lives which is among the trees of the forest.

Hughes uses language devices in each poem, to convey his attitude towards the swallow from, ‘Work and Play’ and the hawk from, ‘Hawks Roosting’. In ‘Work and Play’ there seems to be a playful rhythm when reading the poem aloud with the monosyllabic sentences where the words have a fairly flowing rhythm, where as in ‘Hawks Roosting’ the sounds of the words are very sharp, similarly monosyllabic though. This poem is more repetitive emphasising the harshness of the hawk and the death, which it is all about. Alliteration is used in both of the poems. In ‘Work and Play’ Hughes makes the swallow seem better by comparing her to the troubled humans.