Hawk Roosting

Summary
I, a hawk, sit at the top of the forest with my eyes shut. I'm doing nothing, holding no false dreams
between my head's curved beak and the curved talons of my feet. In my sleep, I dream about killing
my prey perfectly and eating them.
The trees are so well-suited to my way of being! The air I float on and the sun's light seem perfectly
adapted to my way of life, and the earth faces the sky so I can inspect it.
My feet are gripped tightly to the branch. It took millions of years to make my foot, and every single
feather. Sometimes, I hold other products of Creation in my foot when I catch them.
Other times I soar high into the sky, revolving the world around me as I spiral up in slow circles. I kill
when and where I want, because the world belongs to me. I have no use for clever but false logical
thinking: my politeness is ripping the heads off my prey—
That's how death gets dished out. And my one true way takes me straight through life, causing others
to die. I need no logical justifications for my actions.
I fly between the earth and the sun, and it has always been this way. My gaze has not allowed
anything to changed. I will keep things like this forever.

Stanza by Stanza Analysis

'Hawk Roosting' is a poem that creates a special tension between the natural world and the human
world, one that Ted Hughes explored a great deal in his animal poems.
This particular work relies on personification - the bird is speaking to itself, like a human - describing
violent scenes, claiming domination, which means that the reader has to wrestle with ideas that go
beyond the animal kingdom and into the realm of the human and associated psychological and
political issues.
In the ruthless behaviour of the hawk, for instance, some critics see a despot or dictator, a figure that
cares only about power, a symbol of the fascist. Ted Hughes never intended this to be the case but
the way the poem is worded, detailing explicit violence and arrogant god-like thoughts, the reader
can't help but entertain the idea.
The hawk, roosting in the top of a tree in a wood, is given a voice that is human and the ensuing
monologue is an attempt to get right into the soul of the raptor and understand just what hawk
essence is.
Using single sentences, lots of end stops (full stops), some enjambment and repetition, the stanzas
are tightly controlled but given a sense of freedom by lack of rhyme and plodding beats.
Adam Was Not the First Human, for the Bible Tells Us So
Stanza 1
The first line is pure innocence. Here is the hawk settling down for a night's sleep at roosting time.
The position he holds is secure - at the top of the wood, overseeing all. One thing is for certain, this
hawk has a mind of its own. It can think, like a human can.
The second line gets the reader thinking too. That long four-syllable word falsifying has
repercussions. At this early stage, there is no context for this word, which means to mislead, but it
points toward a comparison with humans, who are prone to misleading one another. This bird is a
pure raptor, can't be anything else.
Enjambment leads to line three and the repeated hooked just to emphasise that this hawk is
physically impressive and sharp. And those hooked features might be called into action if the hawk
falls asleep. Subconscious perfection of future hunts and kills.
Stanza 2
This hawk has it all worked out, from tree to earth, his physicality suits. Being high up means that
there is an overview, a natural domination. The air's buoyancy (upward force) and warmth are there
to be taken advantage of. Even the earth is facing the right way so close inspection comes as a given.
Stanza 3
Focus on the feet again as they close tight around the bark on the tree. Note the first lines of five of
the stanzas are complete within themselves. End stopped. This means certainty and gives immediate
control.
The theme of mastery continues, this time introducing the idea of the whole of Creation being within
the grasp of this extremely dominant figure.
Lines 10 - 12 are a focal point in the poem for they suggest that Creation itself was involved in the
making of this hawk and that now, the roles are reversed so to speak. It's the hawk that is holding
Creation, becoming the master of all.
The question has to be asked: Is this the Creation of a Creator or the Creation of Evolution, where the
fittest only survive?
Stanza 4
The perspective changes as the hawk continues its monologue, which is not a dream as we know it,
but a live commentary.
Now the hawk is flying, watching the earth revolve as it makes its way up and up in readiness for a
kill. That all-important four-letter word that first popped up in the opening stanza is here again - kill -
I kill - that act which is so common and normal in the predator's world yet is so shocking and hard to
handle in the human world.
This is killing with impunity. The hawk has to hunt, it knows no other way and, in the poem, this fact
is expressed with a certain coldness. The language is spare yet full of arrogance and fierceness.
Everything belongs to the hawk when it is up in the air and ready to kill; there is no deception, no
going back. Heads are torn off. Simple.
Stanza 5
The hawk deals out appropriate deaths, that is the purpose of the unwavering path when it is about
to strike 'through the bones', a rather terrifying yet effective phrase.
There are no doubts, questions, or debates of opinion one way or the other. Fact is fact; it's the
whole thing. Nothing can get in the way of the hawk's instinctive actions. It kills without malice; the
bird world's permissions are non-existent; environmental guidelines do not apply.
Stanza 6
All a hawk needs are the sun. Right now, the sun is setting. In the mind of the hawk nothing has
changed, nothing ever will change. As long as the hawk has an eye, the all-seeing eye, its will to
remain the same shall persist.
This last stanza sums up the hawk's attitude to life and death. In one sense it is a pure ego that is
speaking - undiluted, pure, true to itself.
Having given the hawk, a human voice Ted Hughes brings the raptor into the world of homo sapiens,
that most developed of animals, the most sophisticated, able to consciously decide between the
moral and the immoral.
In some ways the hawk becomes a mirror - reading this poem does make the reader think about life
and death, power, morals, the relationship humans should have or want with, the natural world.
NCERT TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS
1. Comment on the physical features of the hawk highlighted in the poem and their significance.
Answer
Hawk Roosting signifies self-esteem or self-assertion of a Hawk that is so alienated from the human
world. The poem is a dramatic monologue in a non-human voice; i.e., of the Hawk, who carries the
false belief of himself being the most superior living being. The Hawk brandishes its supreme ego by
boasting of its physical features. The outrageous fashion in which he brands his physiology insinuates
his arrogance. The much-vaunted self-praise has criticised as an instance of fascism. The poet has
brought out savagery by describing the unsophisticated physiology of the Hawk. In the first stanza of
the poem, the Hawk claims to limit the whole of the world between his “hooked head” and “hooked
feet”. The Hawk insinuates himself to embody the whole of creation and even while he is asleep, he
“rehearses perfect kills and eats” in his dream. In the third stanza, we see the Hawk Challenging the
God. He flatters himself that “it took the whole of Creation” to design him, his foot, his each and
every feather. Now the roles are reversed and he possesses and exercises his power over the whole
world.
2. How does the poem emphasise the physical prowess of the Hawk?
Answer
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 a grotesque image of a Hawk whose physical prowess, from the
perspective of the hawk itself, is emphasised. The Hawk sits on the top most branch of a tree in
wood. The egocentric Hawk sees itself at the top of the world. It expresses its superiority thought 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 resolve 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.
3. 'There is no sophistry in my body' – this statement expresses the brutal frankness of the Hawk.
Does the poet suggest something through this statement?
Answer
Ted Hughes in the poem Hawk Roosting portrays the Hawk as arrogant and fallaciously authoritative.
The poet apprises Hawk's savage and grotesque image to the reader. The fashion in which it is
personified, belittling God and Creation is condemned as fascism by many critics. The direct way it
beholds itself as the highest authority shows its audacity to challenge all the social and moral laws of
this world. When it says that “there is no sophistry in my body”, the Hawk is ruthless and brutally
frank about its physiology. It is disdainful and its narcissism is much apparent by its insolence and
impudence as it does not pay heed to the laws of nature or even the social laws. It lacks mannerism
and is gall; only knows killing and ripping the heads off as and when it pleases the Hawk, as it all (the
whole Creation) is subservient to him and it. In the fifth stanza, the Hawk declares itself inscrutable
and that its ways of killing are not to be questioned. It is the Hawk who decides the allotment of
death and there is no other supreme authority to challenge its flight, which is “through the bones of
the living”.
4. '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
As posed in the poem, the Hawk appears to be absolute and indomitable. It ascribes itself 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 the control of the whole
creation, even the Sun abides by it. Nothing that its eyes do not permit can flourish or even exist.
5. Why is the poem entitled 'Hawk Roosting'?
Answer
The poem is about the speaker, the Hawk, who is looking down from where it is roosting, the highest
point in the woods. It is a dramatic monologue in a non-human voice. The Hawk boasts of its
superiority and is self-assertive. It is symbolic of we humans who tend do not think beyond what has
been defined to us by the society our beyond our perspective. Our ignorance is our bliss as in the
case of the Hawk. The Hawk, who narrates its story of how it perceives the world, is personified
incarnating it as the most superior of all the beings. The Hawk believes itself to be the centre of the
cosmos. The whole poem is from the perspective of the Hawk, the bird of prey. The poem is from
Hughes' second book, Lupercal, published in 1960. Once in an interview he explained, “Actually what
I had in mind was that in this hawk Nature is thinking. Simply Nature. It's not so simple because
maybe Nature is no longer so simple.” in many of Huges poems animals serve as a metaphor. He
takes their help to describe his perspective on life. Ted is known for evoking violent imagery and his
description of the ultimate battle of survival. In Hawk Roosting, the Hawk goes on blathering about
its inherited supremacy and its ignorance is its bliss, which it celebrates.
6. Bring out the parallel suggested between the predatory instincts of the bird and human
behaviour.
Answer
Ted Hughes has always known to have cited examples of animals or birds or even fishes in his poems
to draw a parallelism between the animal world and human behaviour. We humans are social
animals; however, the animal instinct is still seated within us. Hughes explores this proclivity of
humans, when the predatory instinct takes over. In the poem the Hawk hungers for the power and
authority, similarly humans lust for power and exercise their supremacy. The Hawks perspective is
blinded or limited by its vision and even with humans, their ignorance is their bliss. There is a
constant battle, the survival of the fittest. It is a jungle raj. The Hawk talks of its inherited power from
the roost it resides in. It blathers its pride and self-assertion. The way any other human does. It
matters little of whether there is an element of truth in it or not, but whether the Hawk or a human,
they proclaim their supremacy over the rest of the world. They believe themselves to be the rulers of
the Creation and mock God, thankless beings who weave their own fall.