2.6.3 - "Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes
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Key Concepts
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The hawk symbolizes both natural dominance and political control.
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Literary devices like metaphor and personification deepen the meaning.
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The structure and voice of the poem enhance its theme of power.
Examples & Applications
"Now I hold Creation in my foot" = metaphor for total control.
"The allotment of death" = hawk decides who lives or dies.
Memory Aids
Interactive tools to help you remember key concepts
Analogies
Think of the hawk as a king sitting on a throneβsecure, dominant, and unquestioned.
Rhymes
"The hawk that talks, with claws that stalks."
Memory Tools
HAWK = Headstrong, Authoritative, Watchful, Killer.
Flash Cards
Form and Structure
- The poem consists of six quatrains (four-line stanzas) in free verse, lacking a consistent rhyme scheme.
- This structure supports the hawk's free, commanding tone and stream-of-consciousness reflection.
Tone and Voice
- The tone is assertive, arrogant, and confident.
- The hawkβs voice is calm but absolute, reflecting an unyielding belief in its dominance.
Themes
- Power and Control: The hawk asserts total control over its environment and even over death.
- Nature and Survival: The hawk embodies the brutal, unflinching laws of nature.
- Divine Justification: The hawk implies that its power is sanctioned by creation itself.
- Autocracy and Tyranny: The hawk's monologue echoes authoritarian ideals, suggesting a broader political metaphor.
Literary Devices
- Personification: The hawk speaks and thinks, expressing philosophical and strategic thoughts.
- Imagery: Vivid sensory descriptions like "hooked head and hooked feet" emphasize the hawkβs lethal capabilities.
- Metaphor: The hawk is a metaphor for ultimate, unquestionable powerβboth in nature and perhaps in political regimes.
- Enjambment: Sentences flow beyond line breaks, showing the hawkβs continuous, uninterrupted dominion.
- Symbolism: The hawk symbolizes raw, natural power and potentially tyrannical authority.