Question

How does the poem emphasise the physical prowess of the Hawk?

Answer 1

Ted Hughes' poetry is known for its intense and obsessive fascination with the world of birds and animals. His poems shock us with unusual phrases and violent images. The poet, in the poem Hawk Roosting, presents the reader with a grotesque image of a Hawk whose physical prowess, from the perspective of the hawk itself, is emphasised. The Hawk sits on the topmost branch of a tree in the wood. The egocentric Hawk sees itself at the top of the world. It expresses its superiority through its physiology. The savage features of the Hawk make it appear ferocious and superior to the rest of the living beings. It talks of its “perfect kills and eats” even in its dreams. The fascist Hawk believes that it took the whole of Creation to make it. And now that the roles are reversed, it takes just one flight of it and it can revolve it all round slowly. The fashion in which it exercises its authority by calling the whole of the world its own, it gives itself the solemn right to kill where it pleases. There is no sophistication about the Hawk. He is arrogant and swaggers. His demeanour is not appreciable as he slanders the Sun, showing that even the Sun follows the Hawk. He talks of his eyes as the final authority and that they haven't “permitted no change” since it began. And the Hawk plans to keep it all like this.