Post by The Thought Police (admin) on Dec 4, 2013 3:35:46 GMT -5
Enjoy! Here are some helpful notes on Hawk Roosting!!
Notes on the persona of the Hawk.
Hughes uses a poetic persona. He has given the creature of the Hawk, the ability to speak. The poem is a dramatic monologue delivered by the Hawk. The content of the dramatic monologue is the Hawk arrogantly boasting about its position in the world and its ability to deal out violence to anything it perceives as a lesser creature.
Characteristics
The Hawk’s Arrogance
The Hawk is clearly filled with a sense of self-importance to the point where it is blatantly arrogant. Hughes establishes this arrogance from the very first stanza by having the Hawk continually refer to itself, repeating ‘I’ and ‘my’ and sustaining this self-reference throughout the dramatic monologue. Furthermore, Hughes reveals the Hawk’s deluded belief that everything thing in the Hawk’s environment was created purely for its benefit. It sees the air as being buoyant so that it can fly and be held by the air; the sun, it believes, was created to blind its prey and allow it to be a supreme hunter; it also sees the trees as being particularly tall so that it is able to survey the earth and find animals to kill.
Theme of Humanity’s Arrogance
By portraying the Hawk’s arrogant attitude towards its surroundings, Hughes is making a wider point about humanity. He is highlighting our deluded belief that we are the supreme life form on the planet and that all natural resources are on Earth simply for us to use and abuse.
The Hawk’s Power-Hungry Megalomania
Hughes’ Hawk is also presented as a creature obsessed with its status and control over those in its world. The very first line of the poem indicates the Hawk’s place in the ‘top of the wood’. This physically puts the Hawk above the other creatures, but also reveals its status as superior to them in the hierarchy (chain of command). Hughes uses symbolism to portray the Hawk’s dominance. The Hawk’s feet are literally gripping the branch that it sits on in the tree. Yet, the way the Hawk views this is that he is gripping the very force of nature that created him and is able to control it. The word choice of ‘locked’ reinforces the idea that the Hawk believes he has the ability to trap Mother Nature. The Hawk’s power hungry nature leads him to believe that he can control god.
The Hawk’s megalomania is further illustrated by its attitude to others in the animal kingdom. Hughes has the Hawk state: ‘I kill where I please because it is all mine.’ It sees every creature in the world as something for it to indiscriminately kill. It relishes: ‘the allotment of death’ – its ability to simply choose an animal and then kill. ‘Allotment’ is a cold and unemotional word, which reflects its casual attitude towards ending the lives of others – this could relate to the kind of unemotional military language that we use when we discuss attacking other countries. It is in the same style as ‘collateral damage’.
The Hawk has no one else in its wood who challenges this behaviour. It sees no need to justify itself. It proudly says: ‘No arguments assert my right.’ There are no barriers to its power and it can do as it pleases. Whole of last stanza is similar to a politician#’s manifesto, but subverted. Hawk promises a lack of change.
Theme of Humanity’s Power-Hungry Nature
The Hawk of this poem can be seen to represent any of our world leaders who are caught up in trying to grab power. The Hawk represents someone like Adolf Hitler, or Julius Caesar, who saw the world as belonging to them and marched their armies across the face of the earth, killing and capturing where they pleased without having to justify their actions to anyone else.
The Hawk’s Lust For Violence
The Hawk’s love of violence is one of it’s most deplorable (disgusting) characteristics. Early on in the poem, the Hawk delights in its brutally simple shape: ‘hooked head and hooked feet’. Hughes builds the picture of the Hawk as a simple but effective weapon, a hook with a sharp edge. The hard alliterative ‘k’ sound reinforces the noise of the Hawk’s claws
The Theme of Our Violence
The Last Verse
Question – What makes the last verse of the poem particularly satisfying?
(to answer -> In what ways does the last verse of the poem bring all aspects of the Hawk’s character together and leave you with a final impression of the future? Then relate back to our society.)
The poem’s conclusion is a particularly satisfying and effective one. It draws on all aspects of the Hawk’s character and most concretely portrays the Hawk as a military dictator with the worst of human qualities. Throughout the last verse, the Hawk’s arrogance is fully made clear with again repeated reference to itself using ‘I’ and ‘my’. Hughes also once again refers to its violent nature by referring again to the ‘sun’. The sun is seen as being ‘behind’ the Hawk. It is a symbol of his power to deal violence. It could be seen in the same way as a dictator like Hitler who used his armed soldiers as an ally that help him kill and maintain his power..
The poem begins the ending with the last line of the second last stanza ‘No arguments assert my right:’ . The colon here introduces a number of statements that the Hawk sees as absolute fact. Hughes uses the synecdoche of it’s ‘eye’ to emphasise it’s military leader aspect suggested earlier in the poem, showing that the Hawk sees everything and no rebellion goes unnoticed. Hughes is portraying how it oversees the kingdom with very tight control, allowing nothing to change. Each of the statements the Hawk makes are like the closing statements of a dictator’s speech. They are like a manifesto showing its values. These statements once again reveal its megalomania and power-hungry nature. The very last line ends with the The Hawk saying it will keep its tight control over its kingdom forever. This is particularly satisfying as it is has a sense of finality to it. We are left with a very compelling view of the dangers of allowing such dictator to continue to rule unchallenged and how when dictators are so well established, they are very difficult to overthrow.
Notes on the persona of the Hawk.
Hughes uses a poetic persona. He has given the creature of the Hawk, the ability to speak. The poem is a dramatic monologue delivered by the Hawk. The content of the dramatic monologue is the Hawk arrogantly boasting about its position in the world and its ability to deal out violence to anything it perceives as a lesser creature.
Characteristics
The Hawk’s Arrogance
The Hawk is clearly filled with a sense of self-importance to the point where it is blatantly arrogant. Hughes establishes this arrogance from the very first stanza by having the Hawk continually refer to itself, repeating ‘I’ and ‘my’ and sustaining this self-reference throughout the dramatic monologue. Furthermore, Hughes reveals the Hawk’s deluded belief that everything thing in the Hawk’s environment was created purely for its benefit. It sees the air as being buoyant so that it can fly and be held by the air; the sun, it believes, was created to blind its prey and allow it to be a supreme hunter; it also sees the trees as being particularly tall so that it is able to survey the earth and find animals to kill.
Theme of Humanity’s Arrogance
By portraying the Hawk’s arrogant attitude towards its surroundings, Hughes is making a wider point about humanity. He is highlighting our deluded belief that we are the supreme life form on the planet and that all natural resources are on Earth simply for us to use and abuse.
The Hawk’s Power-Hungry Megalomania
Hughes’ Hawk is also presented as a creature obsessed with its status and control over those in its world. The very first line of the poem indicates the Hawk’s place in the ‘top of the wood’. This physically puts the Hawk above the other creatures, but also reveals its status as superior to them in the hierarchy (chain of command). Hughes uses symbolism to portray the Hawk’s dominance. The Hawk’s feet are literally gripping the branch that it sits on in the tree. Yet, the way the Hawk views this is that he is gripping the very force of nature that created him and is able to control it. The word choice of ‘locked’ reinforces the idea that the Hawk believes he has the ability to trap Mother Nature. The Hawk’s power hungry nature leads him to believe that he can control god.
The Hawk’s megalomania is further illustrated by its attitude to others in the animal kingdom. Hughes has the Hawk state: ‘I kill where I please because it is all mine.’ It sees every creature in the world as something for it to indiscriminately kill. It relishes: ‘the allotment of death’ – its ability to simply choose an animal and then kill. ‘Allotment’ is a cold and unemotional word, which reflects its casual attitude towards ending the lives of others – this could relate to the kind of unemotional military language that we use when we discuss attacking other countries. It is in the same style as ‘collateral damage’.
The Hawk has no one else in its wood who challenges this behaviour. It sees no need to justify itself. It proudly says: ‘No arguments assert my right.’ There are no barriers to its power and it can do as it pleases. Whole of last stanza is similar to a politician#’s manifesto, but subverted. Hawk promises a lack of change.
Theme of Humanity’s Power-Hungry Nature
The Hawk of this poem can be seen to represent any of our world leaders who are caught up in trying to grab power. The Hawk represents someone like Adolf Hitler, or Julius Caesar, who saw the world as belonging to them and marched their armies across the face of the earth, killing and capturing where they pleased without having to justify their actions to anyone else.
The Hawk’s Lust For Violence
The Hawk’s love of violence is one of it’s most deplorable (disgusting) characteristics. Early on in the poem, the Hawk delights in its brutally simple shape: ‘hooked head and hooked feet’. Hughes builds the picture of the Hawk as a simple but effective weapon, a hook with a sharp edge. The hard alliterative ‘k’ sound reinforces the noise of the Hawk’s claws
The Theme of Our Violence
The Last Verse
Question – What makes the last verse of the poem particularly satisfying?
(to answer -> In what ways does the last verse of the poem bring all aspects of the Hawk’s character together and leave you with a final impression of the future? Then relate back to our society.)
The poem’s conclusion is a particularly satisfying and effective one. It draws on all aspects of the Hawk’s character and most concretely portrays the Hawk as a military dictator with the worst of human qualities. Throughout the last verse, the Hawk’s arrogance is fully made clear with again repeated reference to itself using ‘I’ and ‘my’. Hughes also once again refers to its violent nature by referring again to the ‘sun’. The sun is seen as being ‘behind’ the Hawk. It is a symbol of his power to deal violence. It could be seen in the same way as a dictator like Hitler who used his armed soldiers as an ally that help him kill and maintain his power..
The poem begins the ending with the last line of the second last stanza ‘No arguments assert my right:’ . The colon here introduces a number of statements that the Hawk sees as absolute fact. Hughes uses the synecdoche of it’s ‘eye’ to emphasise it’s military leader aspect suggested earlier in the poem, showing that the Hawk sees everything and no rebellion goes unnoticed. Hughes is portraying how it oversees the kingdom with very tight control, allowing nothing to change. Each of the statements the Hawk makes are like the closing statements of a dictator’s speech. They are like a manifesto showing its values. These statements once again reveal its megalomania and power-hungry nature. The very last line ends with the The Hawk saying it will keep its tight control over its kingdom forever. This is particularly satisfying as it is has a sense of finality to it. We are left with a very compelling view of the dangers of allowing such dictator to continue to rule unchallenged and how when dictators are so well established, they are very difficult to overthrow.