Question

'Now I hold Creation in my foot' – explain the centrality of this assertion in the poem. What makes the hawk's assertion of its invincibility so categorical?

Answer 1

As posed in the poem, the Hawk appears to be absolute and indomitable. It ascribes itself to the summit of the jungle. The highest of all the social ladder, it sits on the highest point from where it can see it all beneath and small. The Hawk exaggerates that it took the whole of the Creation to design it. It sits on a bark that is rough and it at the highest point of the tree. The perspective of the Hawk is bounded by its vision. The little of the wood that it sees from its seat it takes it to be the whole of the world and presumes itself as its God. The little bird's petty egocentricity is amusing as when it flies it believes itself to be the one rotating the planet and moving the whole of the life. So now that the roles are reversed, the Hawk exclaims, “Now I hold Creation in my foot.” The Hawk declaring its assertion as invincibly categorical. It is the Hawk who is in control of the whole creation, even the Sun abides by it. Nothing that its eyes do not permit can flourish or even exist.