Preview

Hawk Roosting

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1193 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hawk Roosting
Hawk Roosting – Ted Hughes
In this poem, the speaker wrote in the perspective of the hawk, revealing the nature of this animal, that it is confident, superior and arrogant. It gives the readers a numb feeling towards the cruelty of the hawk and yet sympathy when the speaker seems to be making a compare of the hawk and human. It make the readers reflect upon our actions and whether humans are just like the hawk in this poem, cold-blooded and cruel, hence giving an ominous feeling to the poem.
In the first stanza, the speaker portrays the hawk as a perfectionist and focused creature as it even practices its kills in its sleep, hence suggesting that the hawk wants to be perfect all the time as it is focused on killing even when it is sleeping. “Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.” shows that the hawk is much focused when it comes to making its kill a perfect one. In the second stanza, the writer speaks of the nature, trees, sun, and the air. It gives the readers a very powerful feeling as all these are forces of the nature that even the man cannot control, yet the hawk seems to be even superior to the nature. The speaker uses diction to demonstrate the superiority of the hawk. “Are of advantage to me,/And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.” suggests that even nature is supporting the hawk and everything is under its control.
The speaker uses allusion in the third stanza, the “Creation” is of a reference to God who is mighty and the most powerful being and it is this powerful being that made the hawk, giving its perfect structure and deadly kills, making the hawk appears to be as powerful and mighty as the God that made him. “It took the whole of Creation/To produce my foot, my each feather.” suggests that a lot of effort is used in making the hawk and every detail is perfect and beautiful. However the hawk seems to be arrogant and proud, it knows that it is the most superior beings now and it can do whatever it wanted because nothing can stop or

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Ms Mg

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout the poem Foulcher draws our attention to the positive qualities of the crow through the use of an extended metaphor in which the crow’s qualities are compared to strong, durable metals — ‘Its iron sheen’, ‘steel-sprung neck, its steel talons’. The comparison of the subject to these metals suggests that the crow is warrior-like and indestructible. Foulcher uses sibilance and repetition within the metaphor to emphasise to the responder the crow’s innate…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evening Hawk Analysis

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As the hawk passes through, it states "The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error." By describing errors as gold, it means the best of errors. Compared to human flaws, it shows the best of our flaws and imperfectness. As the hawk climbs, our flaws become seen, and eventually nothing but flaws can be seen. "Look! Look! He is climbing the last light....whose eye, unforgiving, the world, unforgiven, swings / Into shadow." The mood expressed in the fourth stanza is that of futile hope. The hawk tries with great strength to stay in the light, however, it inevitably falls into darkness. Yet it is in the darkness that the hawk becomes more knowledgeable, as it's "wisdom is ancient" and "immense." This can be interpreted as human flaws benefiting us; as we learn from them, we become more wiser.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the narrator remembers past scenes, he writes, “Brushstrokes flash, a red bird’s/wings cutting across my stare” (22-23). The author recalls memories from the battles, and he retells them as if they are a beautiful piece of art, although the reality is brutal. By envisioning traumatic scenes in a different light, the narrator infers that even the darkest scenes can be viewed with warm energy. When the persona glances into the reflective wall, he explains, “My clouded reflection eyes me/like a bird of prey, the profile of the night/slanted against the morning” (6-8). The author compares night and morning, which puts light against darkness. Although the narrator came with sorrow for all of the lives lost in the Vietnam War, he still sees the hopeful aspect among the grief. No matter what the situation is, hope is always present within one’s darkest…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both the poems “Traveling through the Dark” and “Woodchucks” portray different types of diction, attitude, and metaphors to depict the different contrast towards the animals; while in “Traveling through the Dark”, the attitude towards the animals are reverent and humble, “Woodchucks” portray an attitude towards the animals are acerbic and resentful.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Golden Retrievals

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Hawk exemplifies active stillness. Almost as though he is a guard on watch, making no sound, but observing everything and preparing to attack if the opportunity presents. Examples of such “actively still” diction can be found on line 9 when the Hawk says, “my feet are locked upon the rough bark.” The image conjured with these words is one of a still creature holding an aggressive stance as he observes his “world” around him.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Similies in the Iliad

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A passage will be extracted from the Iliad to analyze how the contents of passage are expressed and contain the similes. The selected passage describes the fight between Achilles and Hector. In fact, the scene tells how fierce Achilles chases after Hector. Furthermore, it describes how Hector gets frightened as facing his death by means of the similes:…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Without reason, humans cannot fully grasp the ideas of time, life, and death, and uncertainty prevails. The remaining stanzas become very philosophical. The use of of the word “hieroglyphics” highlights the uncertainty, as it is an ancient and complex form of writing that is very hard to learn. In these hieroglyphics, however, the bat possesses ancient “wisdom”, which holds the truths the speaker wishes to learn of time, life, and death. These lines suggest that time is a complex subject and it is not likely that humanity will ever be able to fully understand it. In addition, the speaker points out that “if there were no wind we might, we think, hear the earth grind on its axis, or history drip in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar”. The imagery of the dripping pipe here works to show that time is slowly, but surely passing us by, and since it is only “dripping” and in a cellar, it is hard to notice unless the movement of the wind and the earth cease. With the progression of everyday life, humans are often oblivious to the passage of the time. Eventually, however, “the hawk comes” and takes it toll, and there is nothing we can do about it but…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    4 O'Clock Birds Singing

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the poem, the author describes the scene of birds singing early in the morning and how quickly the sereneness ends. The author uses diction and metaphors to describe the birds’ song.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Nesting Time”, a poem by Douglas Stewart combines an anecdote of his and his daughters experience in nature, with description of the appearance and behavior of the honey-eater, and his typical philosophical reflection in the relationship of nature and man. The poem is thus personal, objective and universal in its several dimensions. This is a charming poem that appears to comment on Stewart’s personal experience. He is pleasantly surprised by the behavior and appearance of this remarkable bird, which makes him forget the ‘hard world’, focus on its tiny beauty and cause him to reflect on humankind and nature. The opening is impassioned in its generalizing quality: ‘Oh never in this hard world’. It is apparent from this judgment that Stewart, in regarding our human life as a difficult and unconsoling affair, finds profound solace in nature and her creatures. The reader notices the contrast between his heartfelt “Oh” and absolute indictment of ‘never’, and the cluster of adjectives, with internal rhyme, which introduces the bird: ‘absurd/Charming utterly disarming little bird’. His love for it grows from an initial acknowledgment of its silliness and, then, praise of its captivating behavior to, finally, and adoring diminutive in ‘little’. It is Stewart’s descriptive language that brings the scene to visual life. The bird’s actions and purpose are highly visual through the often…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Raven Analysis Essay

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this essay, I will discuss the elements involved and my interpretation of the poem The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe. Many poems, including this particular one, are made up of a number of elements which are combined to give the reader a certain thought or feeling. I will also discuss the poet's philosophy on poetry and how this plays a role in The Raven.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Theodore Roethke

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the first stanza, the poet has glimpses of his personality, but he finds only fragments and pieces, meeting not himself but his shadow, hearing not his voice but his echo. He also finds that he is not sure of his place in the larger scheme of life because he "live[s] between the heron" (a stately, beautiful creature) "and the wren" (an ordinary bird), between "beasts of the hill" (highly placed, but brutal animals) "and serpents of the den" (associated with evil and danger, but also with knowledge).…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Timedwriting

    • 593 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Throughout the entire work, Warren uses an extended metaphor comparing death to an evening hawk. When describing the hawk’s flight he correlates it’s deliberate movements to the concise temperament of death. “His wing scythes down another day, his motion is that of the honed steel edge, we hear the crashless fall of stalks of Time”. The hawk’s natural actions serve to imitate the way death strikes suddenly with no seeming forethought. Also in comparing death to the hawk, Warren is suggesting the idea that death is natural and makes no deliberately malicious actions. In contrast, in the very last stanza Warren transitions the metaphor using a quaint simile, “ If there were no wind we might, we think hear the earth grind on its axis, or history drip in the darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar”. In doing this Warren is completely abandoning his early comparison of a majestic bird and instead compares it to a mundane annoyance tucked away. In doing this he is attempting to convey to the reader that although death is the grandest gesture one will experience the wind, or life around you, until it is startling…

    • 593 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Great Scarf of Birds

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Opening the last stanza with a freethinking bird that leads the flock, creates a metaphor relating to how he has prepared the reader for his ending statement of his lifted yet not restored heart.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dunbar and other African Americans felt discrimination and imprisoned which is described in this poem. In Sympathy, it uses a caged bird as a metaphor for what it means to be a black during the 1800s. In the first stanza Dunbar states he knows how the caged bird feels. Also how the caged bird is missing out on the beauty of freedom. In the second stanza…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This quote foreshadows his death in a very subtle way. Caesar is saying that, that morning…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics