Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes

Question 1

Hawk Roosting
Person?
Form?
Structure?

Answer 1

1st, perspective of a Hawk, inside a killer’s mind
Dramatic monologue, dominant egotistical
6 quatrains, circular structure, control and hubris, focus on self

Question 2

Hawk Roosting
Context?

Answer 2

-Was interested in nature, both beauty and death of it
-Father fought in WW1
-Thought to represent Nazi Germany and authoritarian figures

Question 3

Hawk Roosting
5 quotes

Answer 3

‘To produce my foot, my each feather’
‘I kill where I please because it is all mine’
‘My manners are tearing off heads’
‘No arguments assert my right’
‘I am going to keep it like this’

Question 4

Hawk Roosting
‘To produce my foot, my each feather’

Answer 4

-Evolved by nature to be perfect killer, used to destroy
-Repeated personal pronoun, egotistical
-Power, godlike thought

Question 5

Hawk Roosting
‘I kill where I please because it is all mine’

Answer 5

-Single-minded, dictator, powerful
-Declarative sentence, monosyllabic words, forceful
-End focus, possession

Question 6

Hawk Roosting
‘My manners are tearing off heads’

Answer 6

-Plosive, bilabial, mocks civilisation
-Brutally honest, no value for life
-Violent imagery, reality of killing

Question 7

Hawk Roosting
‘No arguments assert my right’

Answer 7

-Simple direct language, unstoppable
-Links to dictatorship, no one can challenge him
-Rejects political rhetoric, stubborn

Question 8

Hawk Roosting
‘I am going to keep things like this’

Answer 8

-Chilling image, no change under dictator, always similar leaders
-Arrogant tone, uncompromising, determined
-Verb, imprisonment
-End stopped lines, clipped sentences in final stanza, assertive