Hawk Roosting, Ted Hughes, Poem, Summary, Analysis and More

Hawk Roosting, Ted Hughes, Poem, Summary, Analysis and More

In Nutshell: The poem, which is adapted from Hughes's second collection, Lupercal, gives a hawk the ability to speak and think, enabling the reader to picture what it would be like to possess the instincts, attitudes, and behaviors of such a creature. The hawk has an aura of power as it surveys the landscape from above the trees, as if everything were in its rightful place. The poem makes a point of emphasizing how violence, at least in the hawk's world, is not a moral sin but rather a characteristic of the natural universe. One of several poems in which Hughes investigates the animal kingdom is "Hawk Roosting." Hawk Roosting Original Text Stanza 1 I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. Stanza 2 The convenience of the high trees! The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray Are of advantage to me; And the earth's face upward for my inspection. Stanza 3 My f…