Hawk Roosting summary and analysis

At the top of the food chain, the “HAWK” had become self-centred and self-obsessed as he shows no sophistry to anyone. We can see in the starting of the poem that the Hawk was taking a rest at the top of the tree and in his dream too he was dreaming about or rehearsing his perfect kills

THEMES

• Nature and violence
• Violence is also a part of nature as much as beauty is, that is why violence is also an important part of nature as beauty is
• Cruelty and bloodshed

ABOUT

• It was published in the year 1960 in Ted Hughes’s second book or in the collection of the poems “LUPERCAL”
• It contains 24 lines and 6 stanzas and it was written in free verse with no rhythm and no meter
• And as Hawk is the single speaker in the whole poem so we can also say that, “HAWK ROOSTING” is a monologue (single speaker and silent listener)
• HAWK had been represented at the top of the food chain and as a violent and a powerful creature
• And as the HAWK love to have power or we can say that HAWK is a power lover so we can call the HAWK a “megalomaniac (obsessed with power or love to have power)”

SUMMARY

• As HAWK ROOSTING is a monologue poem, we can see in the starting of the poem that the Hawk was taking a rest at the top of the tree and in his dream too he was dreaming about or rehearsing his perfect kills (i.e., here Sigmund Freud concept had been used that is we dream, what we think or do the whole day)
• In the second stanza, the Hawk tells us about the advantages, that nature had created long ago just for him, that is tall and high trees for him to locate his prey, the sun was made so that he could see his prey properly and hunt it and also the air bouncy was made so that the Hawk could fly in the way he wants. And also, the earth’s surface faces upwards towards him so that he can inspect everything from the top. So here the Hawk wanted to say that nature had created everything for his advantage only
• In the third stanza, the Hawk said that his feet which were used to lock up the rough bark of the tree and were produced or took the whole creation to create it and it’s each feather and now he is the one who with the help of his feet hold the whole creation and hunt them to dead

        ‘ Here, we can relate to a political satire that is as we elect political leaders for our own help but as they get the power at such a high post in the society like the Hawk the Political Leaders too become megalomaniac (power lover) and try to hunt its own people by snatching people’s rights ‘

• In the 4^th and 5^th stanzas the Hawk talks about how he plans and kills his prey:
• HAWK fly up in the sky and revolve around his prey slowly and kill the prey or creature which he wants to
• The HAWK shows “no sophistry (sympathy)” to anyone and he tears off the head of the creature he wants to hunt
• “Allotment of the dead” signifies that the Hawk kills the creature he wants to and shows no sophistry towards that particular creature and the dead for that creature is fixed and no one can change its fate
• Being at the top of the food chain there is no one to stop him or do arguments with him so basically, the Hawk leads his life like a king (or political leader where no one can take action towards them)
• The final stanza talks about the past, present and future of the Hawk as he said the Sun was behind him as he indicates the time here and Sun too can do nothing but to help him with its rays so that the Hawk could hunt and nothing had changed since the Hawk was born and he is not going to change anything in the future too and keeps things like this for forever and ever

CONCLUSION

• At the top of the food chain, the “HAWK” had become self-centred and self-obsessed as he shows no sophistry to anyone (like the corrupted political leaders). We should be active like the HAWK to achieve our goals and opportunities but that does mean we have to choose the paths which are violent and corrupted (that is we should not use any shortcuts or power to reach our goal)