Hawk Roosting

HAWK ROOSTING
BY TED HUGHES
Source: GCSE Bitesize

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryconflict/hawkroosting1.shtml
Ted Hughes
■ Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire, in the North of England,

and grew up in the countryside. After serving in the RAF for two years, he
won a scholarship to Cambridge University where he studied Archaeology
and Anthropology. The themes of the countryside, human history and
mythology therefore already deeply influenced his imagination by the time
he started writing poetry as a student.
■ He made his name as a poet in the late 1950s and 1960s and also wrote
many well-known children's books including The Iron Man (which was
filmed as the Iron Giant). It is for his poetry that he remains important. He
was poet laureate from 1984 until his death from cancer in 1998.
Hawk Roosting
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.
The convenience of the high trees!

The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.
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
Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly -
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads -
The allotment of death.

For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXJsOtKCVTY
Subject This poem comes from an early volume of
poetry called Lupercal. Published in 1960,
it contains many poems about animals and
Matter nature and takes its title from an ancient,
pre-Roman festival celebrating spring.
We can interpret the poem as follows:
■literally (celebrating the hawk itself).
The hawk is a bird of prey, known for its
intelligence and incredibly sharp eyesight.
In medieval times hawks were also used
by kings and aristocrats for hunting.
■metaphorically (exploring themes
associated with the bird). We talk about
being hawk-eyed - observant. We also
think about politicians being 'hawkish' or
hawk-like, which means
being aggressive towards other countries,
favoring, for example, military
intervention.
FORM
This poem has a strong,
regular form. It is written
in six stanzas of four lines
each. The length of the
lines vary, but even the
shorter lines express
strong, controlled ideas
(e.g. line 21).
Thus, the overall effect of
the form is to express
strength and control.
The structure takes the reader through
Structure different aspects of the hawk’s thought
process: it arrives where it began. The poem
■ The first two stanzas are begins and ends in lines beginning with “I.”
about his physical superiority – This underlines the key idea of the poem: he
both in what his body is like is a ruler who will continue to rule exactly
and where he can sit. how he pleases for years to come.
■ Stanzas three and four reveal
his power of nature, and how
he holds everything, including
life and death, in his claws.
■ The final two stanzas form a
kind of justification for his
actions. He explains why he is
not just right because of
physical superiority but also
because of the way he acts
without deception (and he has
the support of the sun to prove
it!).
There is one key sound that
Sound echoes through all the stanzas.
The long 'ee' sound (assonance)
is found four times in stanza one.
This sound runs throughout the
poem. This may suggest the only
sound to be heard throughout
the wood is the screeching of the
hawk itself.
The other sound effect is

the repetition of words referring
to itself - the hawk's references to
itself appear in every stanza. This
shows how egocentric and self-
important the bird is.
Imagery
■ The language is simple. The words found in stanza two are words you might
find in an office. This kind of language contrasts with the threatening
language of violence as in line 16. This contrast suggests a leader trying to be
a calm and sophisticated politician, while really he is a violent thug.
■ The use of negatives (“no”) in lines 2, 15, 20 and 23 makes the phrases sound
like political slogans. They suggest the hawk is rejecting the political process,
relying instead on brute force (line 16).
■ He also says he does not use clever language in line 15 and arguments to put
his case forward in line 20 but, then, in line 21, he suggests the sun supports
his arguments and is behind him.
Attitudes,
Themes
and Ideas
When it was published, this poem was quite controversial. The image of the
hawk sitting on top of the world, controlling everything through the threat of
violence alluded to a fascist leader -- the Nazi symbol was an eagle standing
on top of a wreath.
Ted Hughes said he wanted to show “nature thinking,” but even so the hawk's
thoughts are brutal. The bird sees itself as a political leader who has seized
power from the forces that made it (line 12). The hawk clearly rejects the
political process that works by different parties putting arguments before the
general public.
“THAT BIRD IS ACCUSED OF BEING A FASCIST…
THE SYMBOL OF SOME HORRIBLE GENOCIDAL
DICTATOR. ACTUALLY WHAT I HAD IN MIND WAS
THAT IN THIS HAWK NATURE WAS THINKING.
SIMPLY NATURE.”
From an interview with the author Ted

Hughes in the London Magazine, January
1971
Hawk “I” indicates first person speaker in the persona of the hawk.
Roosting
Figurative Power Reflection/Gloating
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Dreams aren’t needed as he
Inaction, no falsifying dream already has everything he needs.
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
weapons
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.
Order reveals desire to kill overrides need to eat.
Evolved to kill
The convenience of the high trees!

The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me; Arrogance / Power
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.
Evolution of a predator
My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather: End stopped lines
Now I hold Creation in my foot demonstrate assertive
tone of the hawk.
Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly -
I kill where I please because it is all mine. Absolute power / ego
There is no sophistry in my body:

Accepts violence as his
My manners are tearing off heads - nature and his right
The allotment of death. Believes in his

ultimate power
For the one path of my flight is direct
over life and
Through the bones of the living. asserts that
nothing or no one
No arguments assert my right: can stop him.
The sun is behind me.

The hawk has power of time!
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Sample question
Whatever grade you are working toward, the basic structure of any
answer will be the same:
■The introduction will explain the relevance of the question to the
feelings the poem expresses and an overview of the story the poem
tells.
■One paragraph covers form.
■One paragraph covers structure.
■One paragraph covers language (sound and verbal imagery).
■Conclusion: You then conclude on the meaning that emerges from
this.
For each point, you need to provide evidence (a quote or reference)
and an explanation.
Question:
How does the poet write about death
in Hawk Roosting?
Points to make:
■ Dry, technical language in
■ Hughes writes about death stanza two shows the hawk
from the point of view of a distances itself from his
killer. violent actions.
■ The regular form suggests ■ The imagery of the hawk in
the killer is very calm and the tree also shows how far
controlled about what he above and far away the
does. hawk is from what it
■ The structure shows that the actually does.
hawk is trying to justify ■ This also works as a
what he does and the social metaphor for politicians
position he holds that who are a long way from
enables him to do it. the consequences of their
actions.
■ The repetition of the “I” sound shows
the hawk is only concerned for itself.
■ The metaphor in the opening line is
therefore also ironic: the hawk
suggests he looks like the symbol of
justice (depicted blindfolded to show
justice does not take sides), yet the
whole poem is his attempt to justify
his actions.
■ His justification ends with the claim
that he has the support of the sun, yet
we know whose side he is on -- his
own.
■ Hughes shows that by sitting on top
of the world with his eyes closed, the
hawk is merely ignoring the
consequences of its actions.
■ Neither power nor words can justify
the cold kills of the hawk.
2015 WRITING PROMPT
“Crueller than owl or eagle …” With close reference to two
poems, discuss the presentation and significance of cruelty in
Hughes’s poetry.

Hawk Roosting

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HAWK ROOSTING

Source: GCSE Bitesize

■ Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire, in the North of England,

The convenience of the high trees!

My feet are locked upon the rough bark.

The allotment of death.

The sun is behind me.

The other sound effect is

From an interview with the author Ted

The convenience of the high trees!

There is no sophistry in my body:

The allotment of death. Believes in his

The sun is behind me.

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