Discuss the animal imagery in Ted Hughes' "Hawk Roosting".
"Hawk Roosting" is filled with animal imagery. The very first stanza of Ted Hughes's poem provides us with a vivid depiction of the hawk in the title. We see the hawk "sit in the top of the wood." We also see its "hooked head and hooked feet".
In the next stanza, Hughes declares, "The convenience of the high trees!" This expands the image of the hawk, letting us know where it is in nature. We have a hawk sitting on top of a tree as if it was its throne. We might even say that the animal imagery mixes with themes of domination and power. When Hughes says "the earth's face upward for my inspection," it's almost as if the earth belongs to the hawk.
In the third and fourth stanza, we have more animal imagery to work with. We see the feathers of the hawk and are told...
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about its lethal nature. "My manners are tearing off heads," writes Hughes.
We can also talk about the animal imagery by talking about how Hughes explicitly eludes human-centric tropes from his portrait of the hawk. "There is no sophistry in my body," writes Hughes. Later, he adds, "No arguments assert my right."
You might want to think about why Hughes introduces these ideas and how their irrelevance to the hawk reinforce the hawk's animality.
What is the theme of "Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes?
The poem presents a first person narration of the thoughts of this great predator, the hawk. The main theme of the poem is revealed through the self-assured strength of the monologue, as the bird asserts its dominance-
I sit in the top of the wood
Its supreme power –
I hold Creation in my foot
and its establishment as the centre of its own world.
The main surprise to us as reader is the confidence of the hawk in its belief that it is in control, and controls all. We realise that the bird’s narrative is like our own – so similar in the perceived arrogance of its self-belief. When we consider this view from a bird we are sceptical, mocking even. It is when we begin to realise the parallels with our own egotism that we see it is humanity that is held up as conceited -
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.
What is the message of the poem "Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes?
On a literal level, this poem is about a hawk roosting in a tree and reflecting on its body, its predatory powers, and its superiority to other creatures ("I kill where I please because it is all mine").
On a metaphorical level, there are several "messages" or themes that one could take away from this poem. Arguably, the main message here is that we can view the hawk as a symbol for humanity's arrogance, tyranny, and obsession with power and destruction. Thus, the hawk in this poem is like a mirror, reflecting back some of our own less-than-desirable human traits.
The hawk is rather conceited and believes nature has been designed solely for him. Hughes writes, "The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray / Are of advantage to me; / And the earth's face upward for my inspection." According to the hawk, everything in nature was designed to serve him, and this sentiment speaks to humanity's beliefs regarding its superiority to nature and to other beings.
The poem's final stanza reads, "Nothing has changed since I began. / My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this." The hawk believes he will always be superior and powerful, that he is in control of whether or not things change, and even perhaps that he is capable of living forever. This speaks to humanity's obsession with cheating both death and the natural cycles of the earth. Just as humans are arrogant and believe themselves to be indestructible and immune to nature and its changes, the hawk also believes itself to be all-powerful.
What are the figures of speech in "Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes?
The most notable figure of speech in Ted Hughes's poem "Hawk Roosting" is personification. Personification is when something non-human is given human qualities; it is personification to say that the wind "sighs," for instance. Normally, we project something human onto the non-human, but Hughes takes a somewhat particular approach. Rather than standing apart from the hawk and describing it in human terms, the speaker of the poem projects himself into the hawk in order to describe the experience of being a hawk in language that a human might use.
In the first line, Hughes writes, "I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed." The hawk is perched on top of a tree, but in order to describe it, Hughes employs layers of personification. Consider if he had written the line differently: "It sits in the top of the wood, its eyes closed." Using the verb "sit" instead of "perch" would already involve some personification, though the speaker's position would remain external. To convey the full experience of hawk-ness, Hughes goes further and actually unites speaker and hawk into one.
What would it be like to be a hawk? What would a hawk think about if it were endowed with the human capacity for thought? These are the basic questions of the poem, and only the unusually deep personification that we see here can really answer them. Where Hughes arrives is a casually worn omnipotence. The third stanza reads,
My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot.
Here the speaker gives voice to the hawk's unwavering certainty in its own power. Evolution has made it a keen predator. Through Hughes's filter of personification, the hawk knows its own skill and voices that knowledge.
Summarize "Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes. What is the poem's theme?
"Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes is a poem consisting of six four-line stanzas. It is written in free verse and has no regular rhyme pattern. It is written in the first person from the point of view of a hawk.
The hawk character, like many of Hughes' animals, is part of a pantheistic world in which nature, despite its violence and cruelty, possesses a sort of visceral honesty and authenticity. Living is a ceaseless struggle, but the violence of the animals is innocent rather than corrupt, unlike human wars. The hawk reflects:
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads -
There is no real narrative arc to the poem, merely the reflections of the hawk as he perches high up in a tree overlooking the world which he regards as his domain. The hawk has almost a god's point of view, seeing the world as subject to his whim and himself as the arbiter of life and death. When he is awake, he perches, soars, and kills, and when asleep dreams of killing and eating.
What is the moral of Ted Hughes' poem "Hawk Roosting"?
Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes centers around a predatory bird that is perched on a branch. The poem is told from the bird's point of view. The hawk's view of the world is highly self-involved. It sees itself as the most powerful being in existence where it is the master of life and death. The hawk goes so far as to place the sun and creation (God) behind himself because he is more powerful than they could ever be. The final three lines of the poem are very telling to the message of the poem:
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.
The hawk's complete certainty of its power and control over the universe is reminiscent of countries that are in power and believe that they can never fall. Many critics have suggested that Ted Hughes is specifically targeting the United States with this poem. I disagree by the fact that the symbolism would be stronger if he had chosen an eagle. Instead, the poem can be used to reflect not only the United States but any figure who flies high above the masses, sure of their position, without ever realizing that they are in fact fragile and surrounded by other more ominous dangers. This message of hubris pertains to anyone who might get a bigger head than they truly deserve. Like Icarus, those who fly too close to the sun (forget themselves and where they have been) are doomed to fall and be lost.