Hawk

Roosting
By Ted Hughes

Today we are learning to

Understand and analyse the poem

Hawk Roosting

 Born 1930 in Yorkshire ,

growing up in the countryside
which influenced much of his
poetry many of his poems
feature animals.
Served in RAF before studying
at Cambridge University.
Famously married to American
poet Sylvia Plath and had 2
children. Many regarded him
responsible for her suicide.
Spent much time after Plaths
death editing and publishing
her work rather than his own
writing. His final work was a
collection of poems about his
relationship with Plath.

Ted Hughes

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 airs buoyancy and the suns ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earths 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.

Hawk
Roosting
by Ted
Hughes
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Ted Hughes made the following comment about the

poem of
mine usually cited for
poem in The
an interview
in 1971:

violence is the one about the Hawk

Roosting, this drowsy hawk sitting in
a wood and talking to itself. That
bird is accused of being a fascist
the symbol of some horrible
totalitarian genocidal dictator.
Actually what I had in mind was
that, in this hawk, Nature is
thinking. Simply Nature. Its not so
simple maybe because Nature is no
Consider the
representation
of the hawk :
longer
so simple.
In what ways is he merely a product of nature?
What other qualities has Hughes ascribed to him?
How do YOU see his character?

Hughes was recognised for his affinity with

the natural world, and here he views the
world through the eyes of a hawk. The
hawk inhabits a cruel and brutal world,
and many readers have drawn analogies
with human nature.
Interestingly, in the Iraq War, the
Americans who promoted military
intervention
in Iraq Poetry
were called
hawks.
Dont
limit your thinking.
is a two-way
process
and its not ALL about authorial intention: the readers
interaction and response is very valid!
Always try to broaden your thinking and analysis,
rather than looking narrowly at a poem. Just make sure
you support all your with evidence and explain your
points clearly.

CONFLICT
Potentially 2 ways of interpreting this poem in
terms of conflict:
1. The hawk represents natural order: the
unseeing, unfeeling law of natural selection which
states that the strongest will survive and that
this is an inescapable part of human nature as
well. Here, the desire for power and dominance
are primal instincts, essential for survival, but the
cause of conflict in both animal and human
worlds.
2. The hawk represents humans: shows the
arrogance that lets them see themselves as the
dominant species on the planet exploiting natural
resources for their benefit; they have assumed

Omnipotent: having
universal power above
all others.

The hawk it at the

top of everything
where it believes it
belongs contrast to
the final line.

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.
Repetition:
highlights cruel shape,
its appearance is
designed for
dominance
STYLE: dramatic
monologue

fully alive in a real

world; no illusions
or deceits, just
does what is
necessary.

Rhyming couplets:
draws attention to how
skilful and powerful it
is?

From the hawks perception of

itself and the world, the reader
understands the hawks nature
or character.

The convenience of the high trees!

The airs buoyancy and the suns ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earths face upward for my inspection.
Everything is there for the
benefit of the hawk even the
personified earth looks up to the
bird, emphasising its strength
and power

Arrogance an
awareness of the
natural detail
and perfection of
the hawk.

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

Hawk now commands

everything, taking
precedence over God? Has
power over creation?

Repetition of
Creation draws
attention to the hawk
turning into a godlike
power from being the
ultimate product of all
Gods work?

To play God,
feels it owns
the right to act
as it wishes
no higher
order.
Or fly

Arrogance - from the

hawks perspective, it
turns and controls the
world.

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 imagery
becomes
increasingly bloody
and brutal .

sophistry a
seemingly
plausible
argument which is
misleading or
false.

The hawk has ultimate

authority: the power of life
and death, and to retain that
authority it mercilessly
chooses death every time.

Look at the combination of simple, direct language (e.g. stanza 1 I sit

in the top, tearing off heads) with much more sophisticated
vocabulary such as that here. This implies both the simple cruelty, in
the straightforward physical words, and the authority, in the more
conceptual presentation of ideas, of the hawk. Language as power?

The allotment of death.

Metaphor:

For the one path of my flight is direct

Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:

Perhaps the most significant line of the poem in

terms of conflict? Hawk draws pride and satisfaction
from its unchallengeable position. It will do whatever
has to be done to maintain that position, because it
perceives that as its right. Such is the natural order
of things which may apply to mankinds conquest

Again places the hawk

in a position of preeminence, literally and
metaphorically high
in the sky.

Does this suggest

the hawk casts a
shadow?

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.

Hawk takes command of time

itself in this stanza hubris
(lost touch with reality)?

End-stopped
lines: series of
simple
statements
emphasise
authority. No
arguing!
Repetition of
personal pronouns:
throughout the poem
emphasises the hawks
arrogance and its selfcentred view of the

Questions to consider:
1. This monologue focuses only on the hawks
point of view, giving its attitude or philosophy,
but the reader doesnt have to accept this.
How is the hawks attitude right? How is the
hawks attitude wrong?

2. The poem is very different from other poems in

the cluster, which generally show speakers
who are upset or negatively affected by conflict
and seek to question it, whereas Hawk
Roosting perhaps tries to explain it and
embrace it?