hawk roosting- ted hughes

Question 1

analyse the title

Answer 1

• hawk- emphasises bird’s importance, first word and believes it is first
• roosting- suggests resting, comfortable, safe and in control
• together- suggests the poem is about immutability (unchanging)

Question 2

analyse ‘i sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed’

Answer 2

• first person narrator- hawk is controlling the poem
• literally and metaphorically
• hawk is physically up high- symbolising its powerful position over the rest of nature- apex predator (top of food chain)
• ‘eyes closed’- suggests hawk is at peace, meditating on its success, it doesn’t need to look- confident, arragant

Question 3

analyse ‘hooked head and hooked feet: or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat’

Answer 3

• repetition- emphasises control
• ‘feet’ and ‘eat’- only rhyming couplet in poem- emphasises how precise and controlled its kills are
• even in ‘sleep’ kills go ‘perfectly’- constantly thinking of death, fixation, obsession
• he and his reality is perfect- its no ‘falsifying dream’

Question 4

analyse ‘convenience of the high trees! / The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray / are of advantage to me / and the earth’s face upward for my inspection’

Answer 4

• nature is working with the hawk, designed to suit it
• exclamative- enjoys this position of power
• superior- semantic field of high up- emphasises how it looks down on everything, literally and figuratively (high, buoyancy, upward)
• arrogant and hubristic tone, sounds sinister and tyrannical- scrutinising the earth

Question 5

analyse ‘my feet are locked upon the rough bark / it took the whole of Creation / to produce my foot, my each feather: / now I hold Creation in my foot’

Answer 5

• stanza highlights pride of hawk- suggests that God worked hard to create the hawk, but now nature and God are presented as tiny prey at the hawk’s mercy (reversal of power)
• harsh consonance emphasises the hawk’s tight grip
• ‘locked’- powerful verb- sturdy- reference to dictatorship?
• hawk sees itself as god-like, omnipotent

Question 6

analyse ‘or fly up, and revolve it all slowly- / I kill where I please because it is all mine. / there is no sophistry in my body: / my manners are tearing off heads-‘

Answer 6

• ‘revolve’ controlling verb- world turns just for him
• ‘it’ referring to Creation- theme of power across every stanza- hawk’s primary concern
• emphatic end-stopped statements- hawk has the final say
• simply, mainly monosyllabic language- sense of control
• ‘i kill where i please because it is all mine’- selfish, power obsessed nature
• ‘my manners are tearing off heads’- violence doesn’t phase it, likes power, oxymoron- juxtaposes politeness and extreme violence, brutal and vivid imagery
• dashes slow the pace of the poem, hawk seems relaxed and confident
• lack of contractions (it is rather than its)- voice sounds robotic, pride makes it unemotional about subjecting others to pain

Question 7

analyse ‘the allotment of death. / … / through the bones of the living. / no arguments assert my right:’

Answer 7

• the hawk can ‘play god’- choosing who lives and dies (allots), alternatively, ‘grows’ death as an ‘allotment
• juxtaposition- ironic and shows its preoccupation with murder
• violent image of hawk swooping in on its prey
• punctuation, takes its time, comfortable in power
• enjambment- not even the constraints of the poem can stop the hawk
• ironic contrast between life and death- in constant pursuit of kills
• no argument asserts my right- negative statement, rejecting rules of society, kills without mercy

Question 8

analyse ‘the sun is behind me. / nothing has changed sine I began. / my eye has permitted no change. / I am going to keep things like this.’

Answer 8

• reinforces sense of self-importance, personification, sun supports hawk- implies it is right that the hawk has so much power
• ‘nothing has changed since I began’- absolute power since existence, reign never ends, asserting timeless dominance
• ‘my eye has permitted no change’- hawk’s decision, statement, straight forward
• ‘i am going to keep things like this’- creates a sense of certainty, believes it can keep the whole world as it is to continue dominance, unwavering belief in supremacy
• end stopping highlights decisiveness and control
• framing device- begins and ends with ‘I’- arrogant, egotistical

Question 9

describe the structure of the poem

Answer 9

• dramatic monologue from the POV of the hawk, gives power over silent reader
• equal length stanzas- hawk controls poem’s shape
• enjambment and caesura used, not caged by lines, stops sentences where and when it wants
• written in free verse, without a fixed rhyme scheme, lines are concise and even- hawk controls the form

Question 10

key quotes:
(ones in bold must learn)

Answer 10

• i sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed
• hooked head and hooked feet (..) sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat
• convenience of the high trees
• earth’s face upward for my inspection
• now i hold creation in my foot
• I kill where i please because it is all mine
• my manners are tearing off heads
• allotment of death (..) bones of the living
• no arguments assert my right
• the sun is behind me
• nothing has changed since i began
• my eye has permitted no change
• i am going to keep things like this

Question 11

context:

Answer 11

• highly celebrated English poet
• Poet Laureate (1984-98 his death)
• spent most of his life living in rural areas and spent lots of his childhood outdoors, enjoyed hunting, fishing and swimming
• fascinated by animals as a child, collected and drew toy animals, helped his brother when he went shooting
• violent imagery influenced by his father who was a WW1 veteran
• a ‘war poet once removed’
• studied English Lit at Cambridge uni but switched to anthopology
• influenced by Romantic poets
• interested in the innocent savagery of animals
• had many jobs before being a famous poet including working at a zoo
• completed his national service between 1949 and 1951- was relatively peaceful
• image of bird sat atop of a tree (the Imperial Eagle) was a Nazi party symbol of WW2