Introduction of the Poem:
“Hawk Roosting” is one of the Hughes’ simplest poems. It has been written in the form of monologue. It was first published in Lupercal in 1960. This poem is written in the first person i.e., the hawk is itself narrating something from its own mouth. It is a predatory bird and it retains all its predatory characteristics. It is by nature ‘red in tooth and claw’. In the poem, the hawk speaks with a sense of authority. The spectacle of violence pervades this poem. Even more striking than the hawk's egoism and its sense of power, is the imagery of violence and brutality in this poem. The hawk is proud of its power to kill. The hawk's whole business in life is to tear off heads of its victims. Its whole concern is to distribute death and it never waves in carrying out this task. In the poem, the poet ridicules the hawk's false sense of power.
Summary of the Poem:
The hawk perches on high branch of the tree. When it sits on a great height of the tree, it closes its eyes with great case and comfort. It remains in the state of perfect bliss. It expresses its happy state and its perfect satisfaction with its existence. While sitting on the high branch of the tree, it remains completely free from any action. Like human beings, it does not live in the world of imagination and dreams. Like man, it does not think of its actions of past, present and future. Its head looks like a hook with its eyes closed. Its feet are tightly clamped on the round branch of the tree. It rests head to foot and therefore one need not mistake the hawk to be day - dreaming. As the bird has already asserted that it is not a day dreamer nor does it wander in the world of imagination, it wants to confirm the fact that it never dreams even about practical actions. It does not think of many birds whom it has killed and eaten, and of the many birds whom it would kill and eat in the future. There is nothing false about this view of its activities. Like man it does not make any rehearsal of performing its future action of killing its prey.
Sitting on the top of the tall tree, it feels overjoyed and proud on its grand position which provides it many comforts and advantages. Everything is favourable to his position. On such a great height, it enjoys the cheerful weather. It is overwhelmed with the touch of fresh and pure air blowing on a great height. It feels as though it were floating in the air. Sometimes the mild air soothes the upper surface of its hairy body. Fresh air provides it great relax. During its perch on the top of the tree, it enjoys the warm and bright rays of the Sun. Perched on a great height; it considers itself the centre of the world. It is inspired with the spirit of great superiority and proud. It thinks that everything related to Nature such as earth, ocean and sky. The upward face of the earth is meant for it so that while meditating in its perch it may have a clear look at everything. It proudly presumes that the whole world has been made visible at the great height.
Here the hawk presents itself as the acme of all perfection or evolution in Nature. When it thinks of its feet and feathers, it is overwhelmed with the feelings of proud. It arrogantly thinks that its feet and feathers have been endowed with extraordinary traits. It can hold the bark of the tree on which it is perched very tightly with its feet to avoid a fall. Its feathers help it in flying up and down. It can soar very high in the sky without flapping its wings. It can also move in circle during its very high flight. It vainly claims that it is the best creation of Nature. The egotistic hawk challenges Darwin's theory of evolution. It asserts that all the ability needed for creation is found in its feet and feathers and God had taken great pains to give it the shape which it possess. God had paid a special attention to its feet and feathers. Now the hawk believes that the entire power of creation lies in its legs.
The hawk thinks that everything is well - organised and established for its purpose and it thinks itself the centre of the whole universe. It dominates everything related to Nature and the earth under its feet and feathers. Its feet and feathers are blessed with extraordinary skill and power. It flies very high in the sky. It moves round in the circle without flapping its wings. It holds in its body the entire power of creation. It may search for its food from the vantage spot where it is seated. It looks around flying slowly in the high sky. As the hawk considers itself as the legitimate owner of the whole world, it kills whatever, whenever and wherever it pleases. It does not think, discuss and argue at any point because it lives by instinct. Like Nature, it is blind to everything except its own purpose. It believes in its power and it does not bother about rationalizing its actions. It never misses its aim. Its only path of flight brings it direct to its prey. Its mode of operation is just violent killing, tearing the head of the prey. In this way it decides the fate of the creatures and allots the date of their death.
The hawk considers itself the supreme power and authority of the earth. As a lawful owner it rules over it. It hovers over the earth like a victor. As it arrogantly thinks that the whole earth lies under its sole possession, it can kill whatever, whenever and wherever it likes. It does everything by its own instinct. It does not need the justification of anyone for its actions. Because of believing in its power it does not need to ponder over anything. It despises the use of false arguments. It decides the fate of the creatures that fall a prey to its hunger and allots the date, time and place of their death. Its only concern in life is to kill the birds whom it feels like killing. Its only concern is to cause death of the birds that attract its notice. It flies directly towards its prey, and pierces with its beak or its claws, through the very body and bones of the living creature which is its prey. It does not use any arguments to prove its power over the world. Its authority is to be taken for granted.
It is the time of evening and the Sun is setting in the West, but the hawk is facing the East. The hawk asserts that the world is still under its feet and it has still maintained the same supremacy over earth which almost equates it with God. It still holds the position of a ruler or an emperor of the universe. The Sun is also behind it. It asserts that the world and conditions have remained the same since it got its existence in the universe. This may be contrasted with the attitude of human beings. The human beings keep on handing over the views generation after generation that the world has changed completely. They (the human being) think, discuss and argue over the changes of the world, but the hawk has a determined attitude for the world. It does not accept any change in the world. It has not looked at anything with different attitude. Consequently the hawk does not perceive any changes. In fact, the bird does not pine for any change in the world. It would not like to be deprived of all the privileges which it has been enjoying for years. It has complete freedom to do what it pleases. This life of total abandon without a care in the world is possible only because it lives by its instinct and not by mind. Hence, it would like to keep things as they are.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
Hawk Roosting is the most famous and the most anthologized of Hughes’ animal poems. It appears in the volume of poems entitled Lupercal published in 1960. In the poem, the poet touches on the element of violence in the hawk with a slant. In it, the hawk seems to have a broad, deep look at the world around, absorbing and analysing. In the poem, the hawk itself narrates something from its own mouth. It is a predatory bird and it retains all its predatory characteristics. It is by nature red in tooth and claw. In the poem, the hawk stands for power, nature, even god, but in each case it indicates soothing predatory, ferocious, and callous and bothered only about its own purpose.
Thought - Content:
The hawk is imagined as speaking and expressing its own thoughts. It is perched on the summit of the tall tree. It expresses its happy state and its perfect satisfaction with its existence. It perches at a high point with its hooded eyes closed. It remains inactive, just relaxing calmly. It does not live in a world of dreams and imagination like human beings. Man succeeds only in dreams but the hawk never dreams of achieving its perfect kill. There is dichotomy between its instinct and thought. It never dreams even about practical actions. It never dreams that it has killed its favourite prey and is enjoying its food. Perched on a point of great height, the bird exults over the advantages of its position. The tall trees are of such vantage points. The air is clear and pure at that height and the Sun's rays are also sharp and bright. The hawk proudly observes that the whole world lies open for its glance and implies that it would condescend to inspect the earth, behaving as though it owned the entire globe. It then, thinks of its feet and its feathers. It asserts that the moulding of its feet and the creation of its feathers were no easy matters. Great pains had to be taken to give it the shape which it possesses, particularly its feet and feathers. All the ability needed for creation is to be found in its feet and feathers. As it considers itself as the apex of creation, it avers that the entire creation is contained in the complicated structure of its foot. It can fly up from its nest and go round call Creation, killing any prey whom it likes to kill because the whole of Creation belongs to it. It is only concerned with tearing off the heads of its victims. It does not rehearse, does not meditate and it need not offer any justification for its cruel killings. It believes in its power and does not bother about rationalizing its actions. It would permit no change in the universe even in the future.
Humorous Elements:
In the poem, the poet ridicules the hawk's false sense of power. In fact, the readers are amused when they read the egoistical lines in which the hawk speaks of the comfort of its nest on the tall and high trees:
“The 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.”
We are equally amused when the hawk speaks of its feet and feathers:
“It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot,”
Depiction of the Violence and the Brutality:
The hawk is proud of its power to kill. Here it reminds us of the pipe in another poem by Hughes. All the fierceness and the brutality of the hawk have been summed up in a few lines:
“I kill where I please because it is all mine.”
The whole concern is to distribute death and it never waves in carrying out this task because it knows only one path, and that is the path leading it directly through the bones of the living creatures:
“The allotment of death.
For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right.”
The poem shows the poet's interest and mastery in depicting the violence and the brutality which are the rule, not the exception, in the world of Nature.
The Imagery in the Poem:
In the poem, it is the fierceness and cruelty of the hawk which are emphasised. The hawk can kill where it pleases because the whole world is its domain. To tear off heads is a routine performance by him. It is an arbiter of life and death. The allotment of death ' is its privilege. The one path of its flight lies directly through the bones of the living. The poet has described the killer - hawk in this kind of metaphorical style which is quite rare in the entire gamut of English literature.
The Unity of Structure:
The poem is built around a single idea, namely the hawk's feeling of supremacy over the rest of the creation. “Now I hold Creation in my food”, ways the hawk. The hawk thinks that nothing can prevent it from killing any creature whom it might like to kill. It is only concerned with tearing off the heads of its victims. It does not rehearse, does not meditate and it need not offer any justification for its cruel killings. It believes in its power and does not bother about rationalising his actions. It never misses its aim. Its only path of flight is that which brings it direct to its prey. The poem provides a total concentration of effect. Each line of the poem contributes to the development of the central idea and the poem ends with another expression of the hawk's feeling of sovereignty of over the world:
“My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.”
A Perfect Animal Poem:
The poem establishes Hughes’ reputation as a poet of the world of animals. This poem figures in most of the anthologies. It depicts a hawk's eye - view of the world. The hawk believes that trees, air, Sun and earth are there only for its convenience and that the purpose of Creation was solely to produce it. The hawk thinks that the world revolves at its bidding and that all other creatures exist only as its prey. This egotistical hawk says:
“It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot.”
Form, Style and Language:
This poem is written in the form of a monologue. The speaker here is a hawk (which is a bird of prey, attacking smaller birds and eating them to feed itself). The hawk here is to be imagined as speaking and expressing its ideas about itself and the universe of which it is a denizen. It is one of Hughes simplest poems. Its thought content is simple, and its language is simple too . It offers no difficulty at all even to the uninitiated reader. The words are simple, and they have simply been arranged. There is no complexity, and no intricacy, in the thought and there is no complexity or intricacy in the arrangements of the words or in the syntax.
