This idea carries on to the next stanza where he is contemplating how perfect his features appear:
“It took the whole of creation to produce my foot, my each feather”.
The Hawks expanded description of his foot shows the delicacy of his features and reveals the vain character that he is. With this, combined with the repetition of “my”, it appears that the Hawk believes most of the work done by “Creation” was to produce him. The repetition of “Creation” in these lines is very important. The use of this word introduces religion into the poem, in particular the idea of the creation of the world by God. The capital letter at the beginning shows the importance of “Creation” and the power it holds. In the last line, “Now I hold Creation in my foot”, it is evident that the Hawk believe himself to hold the power of “Creation” and he is comparing himself to a god-like character. This yet again shows how important and special he believes himself to be.
The arrogance of the Hawk continues to become evident at the beginning of stanza four:
“Now I hold creation in my foot…Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly- I kill where I please because it is all mine.”
This line explains how much influence he thinks he has on life. Ted Hughes’ use of language in this line achieves a cold and calculating tone. The word, “revolve”, suggests that the earth is turning below him and he is stationary above the world. The Hawk is a very controlling creature and with this he realises that he has the power to change life and manipulate what has been created and what is going to be created by killing. The statement, “it is all mine” sums up the Hawks arrogant nature. He supposes that everything belongs to him as he is above everyone else and is the only one that is of any importance.
Another two closely related aspects of the Hawks personality are his self-belief and relaxed attitude. The Hawk is very confident within himself and this is evident from the description of the Hawks rehearsal of “Perfect kills”. The Hawk is aware that he is a skilled predator and he is not afraid to admit that he is good at what he does. This comment could be portrayed as arrogance on the Hawks part but he does have the right to describe his actions as “perfect” if this is the case. His self-confidence is also clear from the constant repetition of “I” and “My” throughout the poem. This recurrence highlights the power the Hawk considers himself to have. It also displays his controlling nature and the importance he believes he possesses. Together, this shows the Hawks complete self-belief.
Ted Hughes’ connotation of the Hawks relaxed approach can be noticed from the title of the poem, “Hawk Roosting”. This immediately evokes the idea of the Hawk being at rest and peaceful. In stanza one he describes himself “sitting in the wood” with his “eyes closed”, which also suggests that the Hawk is content and relaxed. This idea continues through the next few lines of the poem by Ted Hughes’ use of language that indicates the speaker’s stress-free and restful state, for example, “dream” and “sleep”.
Towards the end of the poem the ruthlessness of the Hawk is revealed. The description of his actions shows how merciless he is and also his lack of pity:
“My manners are tearing of heads.”
This paradox explains that this is the way the Hawk behaves and to “tear of heads” is in his nature. The word, “manners” usually suggests good behaviour and this contradicts the fact that he is “tearing of heads” but in the Hawks case, to behave in this way is only natural and how he manages survives.
Throughout the poem the single-minded aspect of the Hawks personality clearly stands out. His specific aim is to kill and his determination to succeed is apparent from poem:
“For the one path of my flight is direct through the bones of the living”.
This line shows the Hawks mental effort to succeed in killing. It also shows his concentration and preciseness with what he is doing. The phrase, “direct through”, noticeably shows that the Hawk has no uncertainty as to what direction he is travelling in and has no doubt about what he is doing, there is no left or right with the Hawk; everything is short, simple and straight: “one path”, “direct through”, “No arguments”.
Finally, the persistence of the Hawk can be noticed in the last stanza of the poem:
“The sun is behind me. Nothing has changed since I began. My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this.”
In these lines the Hawk is insistent that nothing has or is going to change. Ted Hughes uses short, definite and confident statements of fact to show the Hawks persistence. The Hawk asserts his power in the final, single statement of the poem:
“I am going to keep things like this”.
In this line his confidence and resulting persistence are all unmistakable.
Ted Hughes has been very successful in revealing the many features of the Hawks personality in this dramatic monologue. I believe Ted Hughes admires the hawk and is fascinated by the Hawks many different personal qualities that Ted Hughes himself, has revealed to the reader throughout the poem. The careful word choice, sentence structure and figures of speech used by Hughes all the way through the poem have clearly and very effectively conveyed the personality of the Hawk.
