Stanza 2 In the second stanza, the hawk is

evaluating the elements of nature which are at his

service to achieve domination over earth signified
by the sign of exclamation at the end of the first
line, “The convenience of the high trees!” being
high up means there is an overview, a natural
domination. The air’s upward motion benefits him
and the rays of the sun fall to warm him. The
hawk’s confidence in its own superior vision is very
much evident in the last line, ‘And the earth’s face
upward for my inspection’. The earth has been
relegated to an inferior position as it faces
‘upwards’ for hawk’s inspection. The whole second
stanza strikes a note of self-satisfaction and
attainment over his claim to be the superior being
in this world.
Stanza 3 In the third stanza, the hawk has
turned towards his own physique and he feels
euphoric thinking about his feet which are locked
upon the rough bark and can hold his prey tightly
in his claws. He proudly states that the molding of
his feet and the creation of his feathers were no
easy matter. It took the effort of the whole creation
and great pains to give him the shape he
possesses, particularly his feet and feathers. The
word ‘Creation’ is repeated and personified with
allusion to God suggesting that Creation itself was
involved in the making of this hawk but now that
the roles are reversed and it is the hawk that is
holding Creation becoming the master of all. The
first three lines of the stanzas are complete within
themselves. End stopped which gives a tone of
certainty and control to the hawk. The last line
shows the hawk as God as the whole creation is
within the grasp of this extremely dominant figure.
Stanza 4 The enjambment in the lines at the
start of the stanza four continuing with concluding
line of the preceding stanza ‘Now I hold Creation in
my foot/ Or fly, and revolve it all slowly’ suggest
the superiority of hawk in all circumstances
whether sitting with its ‘feet locked upon the rough
bark’ or encircling in the sky in slow motion to hunt
his prey as the earth also follows the slow
movement of the hawk. It proclaims its godlike
position as it announces how it holds creation in its
foot considering itself to be no example of
“sophistry” as suggested by the use of the
negative. In stanza 4 the hawk is focusing on his
killing techniques. The word ‘kill’ is repeated in
stanza 4 again which was earlier mentioned in
stanza 1. The language in this stanza is simple
and direct but full of arrogance and fierceness.
“I kill where I please because it’s all mine”
reinforces the truth that the Hawk does not deviate
from its claim of being a killer and states it
honestly and bluntly that it kills where ‘it pleases’
and it seems that the entire world and Creation is
under the Hawk’s control. “There is no sophistry in
my body:” There is nothing illusory or deceptive
about its shape and body, and his only concern is
to kill the birds that he feels like killing. The Hawk
is brutally honest and the use of the language of
aggression supports its brutal honesty. This
understanding that killing and violence are an
integral part of hawk actually establishes the
hawks’ attitude and personality. It rejects human
understanding and morality, claiming that it has no
need for “falsifying dream[s]” or “sophistry.”.
“My manners are tearing off heads” The Hawk
takes a brutal pride in its brutal strength. The
killing is with impunity. Hawk has to hunt as he
knows no other way and this is expressed with
coldness as the hawk is devoid of any feelings or
regrets. There is no deception, no going back.
Heads are torn off, it is as simple as that for him.
The blatant truth spoken by the Hawk
symbolizes its honesty and bare reality in contrast
with the duplicity exercised in the human world.

Stanza 5 The 5th stanza opens with open

declaration that hawk is a destroyer who decides
who has to die, and that is the objective of his
unwavering path when he is to strike ‘through the
bones’ a quite terrifying but effective phrase. He
flies directly towards his prey and pierces through
the very body and bones of the living creature that
he has decided to kill. ‘No arguments assert my
right’ makes use of the negative to assert hawk’s
authority and domination which does not accept
any arguments or confrontation. It just kills without
malice as the word permission is non-existent in
his world as no one can question his authority.
The hawk is so god-like in this stanza that he says
he chooses who lives and dies. The one flight he
makes is the one he takes to kill his prey. There
are no arguments necessary to justify his
murderous intentions because he is all-powerful.
Stanza 6 The sixth and final stanza
closes ‘Hawk Roosting’ in an absolute way to
establish his absolute power. The hawk claims that
the sun is shining behind him as if even the sun is
establishing the hawk’s authority, the world has
not changed since he was created. It supports the
hawk’s unprecedented position Since the hawk was
created, it has been perfect and permanent. He
says it has not changed because he has not
allowed it to do so. As long as the hawk has an eye,
the all-seeing eye, its will to remain the same shall
persist as he will allow no change.
The hawk has only “one path”; and that is of a
killer—killing is its nature. The concluding lines
assert the Hawk’s might and position and it is not
willing to exchange it with anyone else. This final
stanza sums up the hawk’s perspective to life and
death. In one sense it’s a pure ego and undiluted.

The poem acquires symbolic and metaphysical

interpretation as the poem links to the circle of life,
suggesting that the superior position of the Hawk
and its reign (Rule) will never end.
In this poem, a hawk is given the power of speech
and thought, allowing the reader to imagine what
it's like to inhabit the instincts, attitudes, and
behaviors of such a creature. The hawk has an air
of authority, looking down on the world from its
high vantage point in the trees and feeling like
everything belongs to it. The poem is particularly
keen to stress the way that violence, in the hawk's
world at least, is not some kind of moral wrong—
but a part of nature. "
The hawk is given the power of conscious thought.
What the hawk lacks, however, are human qualities
like mercy and remorse: it is ruthless and direct in
its thoughts about hunting prey, though this
violence is presented as simply part of who the
hawk is. Imagining what goes on in the mind of the
hawk presents nature as both majestic and
fearsome. Violence, the poem suggests, is just as
much a part of nature as is beauty, and the natural
world isn’t subject to human notions of morality.