Hawk Roosting

• I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.

  • first person narrative - he is controlling the poem
  • powerful position - over the rest of nature - top of the food chain, dominance
  • hawk will only act when it feels like it needs to - hawk is at peace since it knows that it is so powerful and doesn't need to fear anything - comfort
  • unchecked power that doesn't fear challenge
• ' I kill where I please, because it is all mine.'

  • mostly monosyllabic language creates a sense of control - provocative, blunt, authoritarian
  • the hawk's say is final - line ends just like the lives of the animals he kills
  • juxtaposition- politeness with extreme violence to shock the reader
• 'I am going to keep things like this.'

  • this is his ideal world
  • poem ends and begins with 'I' - reflects haw's arrogance
  • creates certainty - it believes it can keep the whole world as it is - ironic as the reader knows it can't control everything
  • end-stopping in the final stanza - gives statement a matter of fact tone
• context

  •  Hughes said the poem wasn’t about cruelty – he just wanted to show a hawks ‘natural way of thinking’
  • Animals serve as a metaphor for his view on life: animals live out a struggle for the survival of the fittest in the same way that humans strive for success
• structure

  • The clearly organised structure of the six stanzas reflects the hawk’s control over his life and land.
  • The steady and calm pace to the poem again mirrors the hawk’s measured control over the woodland – he will not be rushed by anyone