Hawk Roosting Critical Essay
Hawk Roosting: Critical Essay Kieran Mooney
Task: Choose a poem which is a specific poetic form. Show how the particular form helped your appreciation of the ideas and/or feelings which the poem explores. In your answer you must refer closely to the text and at least two of; form, theme, imagery, or any other appropriate features.
“Hawk Roosting” is a poem by Ted Hughes. The poem helps the reader appreciate the ideas and feelings which are explored throughout the poem. This is skilfully done through form, imagery and word choice over the course of the poem.
The poem is about a hawk resting high up in a tree. Through a monologue, the poem reveals the hawk to be a steady-minded, rational and believable character.
In the first stanza, the poet begins to hint to the reader what sort of personality the hawk has. He does this in the first line if the poem: “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed”
This suggests to the reader that the hawk has no fear. This is shown by the words ‘eyes closed’. The word ‘top’ signifies that the hawk is the top in the forest and that he rules the forest, and that there is nobody above, or more powerful than him. The hawk is again referred to being powerful in the line: “Between my hooked head and hooked feet”
In this line the alliteration of ‘h’ together with the assonance in ‘oo’ makes the reader drag out the word ‘hooked’, which emphasises the word and the hard harsh sound contained in it. This portrays a dangerous and rugged view of the hawk.
Stanza two shows the reader that the hawk believes the elements that are there are ‘of advantage’ to him: “The air’s buoyance and the sun’s ray, Are of advantage to me”
This shows the hawk feels everything is there to assist him, and that he is the reason all the elements exist. The poet uses personification to describe the ‘air’ and the ‘sun’, this tells the reader the hawk feels they are on his side and he rules them, like a general inspecting his troops.
Task: Choose a poem which is a specific poetic form. Show how the particular form helped your appreciation of the ideas and/or feelings which the poem explores. In your answer you must refer closely to the text and at least two of; form, theme, imagery, or any other appropriate features.
“Hawk Roosting” is a poem by Ted Hughes. The poem helps the reader appreciate the ideas and feelings which are explored throughout the poem. This is skilfully done through form, imagery and word choice over the course of the poem.
The poem is about a hawk resting high up in a tree. Through a monologue, the poem reveals the hawk to be a steady-minded, rational and believable character.
In the first stanza, the poet begins to hint to the reader what sort of personality the hawk has. He does this in the first line if the poem: “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed”
This suggests to the reader that the hawk has no fear. This is shown by the words ‘eyes closed’. The word ‘top’ signifies that the hawk is the top in the forest and that he rules the forest, and that there is nobody above, or more powerful than him. The hawk is again referred to being powerful in the line: “Between my hooked head and hooked feet”
In this line the alliteration of ‘h’ together with the assonance in ‘oo’ makes the reader drag out the word ‘hooked’, which emphasises the word and the hard harsh sound contained in it. This portrays a dangerous and rugged view of the hawk.
Stanza two shows the reader that the hawk believes the elements that are there are ‘of advantage’ to him: “The air’s buoyance and the sun’s ray, Are of advantage to me”
This shows the hawk feels everything is there to assist him, and that he is the reason all the elements exist. The poet uses personification to describe the ‘air’ and the ‘sun’, this tells the reader the hawk feels they are on his side and he rules them, like a general inspecting his troops.