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HAWK ROOSTING

TED HUGHES:
Ted Hughes was an English poet who was the Poet Laureate of England from 1984 until his
death. He is considered as one of the best poets of his generation. Growing up in the valleys
and moors of Yorkshire, he developed an early fascination with animals. Apart from a brief
stint living in America with Sylvia Plath, Hughes mostly lived and worked in England. Indeed,
such was his popularity that he was appointed to the post of Poet Laureate by Queen Elizabeth
II and received numerous awards and honors.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
But this poem itself is notable for its lack of specific historical context. Part of the poem's aim
is to uncover something innate and true about nature—to explore the laws of nature without
sentimentality. Accordingly, the hawk states "Nothing has changed since I began," and that "I
am going to keep things like this." There is a sense of timelessness, then, to the way the hawk
sees itself in its world. This speaks to the presence of violence in the world, suggesting that,
though humanity may seek to wish it away or view violence as evil, it is never as simple as
that violence will always exist.

TEXT OF THE POEM:

I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!

The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
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And the earth's face upward for my inspection.

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

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 -

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 sun is behind me.

Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.

INTRODUCTION:
Hawk roosting is from Ted Hughes’ second book, Lupercal. It is among the earliest poems of
by which Ted Hughes used animals to indicate the character of man and to spark thought of
simply how a lot of man’s habits are instinctual, versus how a lot of man is dominated by his
divine. The hawk, who’s first-person speaker of this poem, speaks fully of instinctual actions,
giving examples of actions which are pure to hawks however repugnant to creatures of
conscience: “my manners are tearing off heads,” the shortage of feelings within the voice,
together with the intelligence of the phrase selections and the delight the hawk feels for itself,
have led some readers to imagine that the writer’s intention in penning this poem was to
glorify violence.

PARAPHRASE:
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 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 change. I will keep things like this forever.

SUMMARY:
1. The stanza discusses how the speaker sees itself. “I sit in the top of the woods”,
represent how the speaker feels superior over everything. The mention of “feet”
personifies the hawk implying that the poem is about humans. “Perfect kills” signifies
the arrogant nature of the hawk.

2. This stanza discusses a hawk that obtains power overall. The hawk is characterized as
an egoist. Words like “convenience”, “buoyancy”, “advantage” and “my inspection”
imply the hawk’s arrogance and power overall creation and earth. Reveals that one
obtains power will often gain privilege such as respect and obedience from others.

3. This stanza further reveals the arrogant nature of the speaker. “feet/foot” hints at the
relation to humans. “It took the whole of creation to produce my foot, my each feather”
he believes that he was made by a god like figure and sees himself as a god like figure.
Rough bark can mean rough situation.
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4. “I kill where I please because it is all mine”, repetition of the hawk’s arrogance. The
hawk lacks sophistry and feels that it does not have to justify itself. Uses harsh imagery
that shows the hawk brutality and again enforces its superior nature. The hawk slowly
revolve around the prey he considers himself like a monarch a dictator and needs not to
be clever because it is a human quality. The hawk when want some prey just tear up
heads and cherish his food. This stanza shows violence and savagery.

5. “allotment of death” here the hawk is telling us that his prey is going to die sooner or
later but he is the only one that grants his prey more or less time to live. Allot means
permit and authority. Again the hawk is illustrating his power through his ability to kill
his prey directly through the bones. He is confident that he can kill and nothing can
change that because he considers it his right. The hawk’s power is similar to a
dictatorship. “For the one path of my flight” justifies actions with fate, meaning that he
is destined and has the right to kill.

6. “The sun behind me” creates imagery of the hawk creating an eclipse over the sun. The
sun is might and powerful meaning nature is in his favor. Reinforces how the hawk
views itself to have godlike qualities. “Nothing has changes since I began”, adds to the
idea of eternal power and dominance and how he is the representative of all the
previous and upcoming generations of hawks. “My eye has permitted no change. I am
going to keep things like this” again the hawk acts as if it possess ultimate control
saying he has not seen any change and not allowed anything to be changed. He will
keep hunting like his elders did and forward this bloodline to succeeding generation.
He will not deviate

STANZA ONE BY ONE:

LINES 1-4
I sit in ... kills and eat.
ANALYSIS:
The poem begins by launching straight into the hawk's interior monologue. The hawk is
personified throughout the poem, given capacity for thought, language, and expression. This
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leads to a kind of contradiction that runs through the poem: the hawk's killing nature is beyond
human reasoning, and yet the poem can only express this nature through human language.
The hawk sits at the "top of the wood," surveying its kingdom. Similarly, as a bird of prey, it
sits at the top of the food chain, and its high vantage point represents this superiority. Its closed
eyes capture the way in which it inhabits its nature completely—it is at ease with itself, acting
instinctively. The end-stop at the end of line 1 reinforces the way in which the hawk will act
only when it feels it needs to—it won't be hurried by anything else.
The caesura after "inaction" creates a similar pause to the endstop, carrying the same
connotations. Here, the hawk starts drawing a distinction between the way that it thinks and
the way that humans do. It indulges in no "falsifying dream"—it sees the world according to
its true nature—implicitly criticizing the way that humanity imposes a false morality on the
idea of violence. In this poem, violence isn't evil, it's just a normal part of the hawk's world.
The diacope and alliteration in "hooked head" and "hooked feet" emphasizes the sharpness
of the parts of the hawk's body, suggesting its violent nature. In line 4, the hawk states how it
sometimes "rehearse[s] perfect kills and eat[s]" when it sleeps. Even in dreams, then, the
hawk inhabits its true nature.

LINES 5-8
The convenience of ... for my inspection
ANALYSIS:
The second stanza sees the hawk offering its thoughts about the way that nature seems
perfectly calibrated to suit its killing instinct. Almost ecstatically, line 5 uses apostrophe to
celebrate the hawk's position at the "top of the wood," as it exclaims, "The convenience of the
high trees!" It's as if the hawk suddenly addresses nature itself. The trees work well for the
hawk, because it hides in them and waits till it spies its prey.
Likewise, the "air's buoyancy and the sun's ray" provide the hawk with an "advantage."
The air allows the hawk to fly, and the sun allows it to spot its prey. This section is all about
the equilibrium (the balance) of the natural world, which at once seems infinitely complex but
also remarkably simple. Nature's different elements function in harmony. The poem's point, of
course, is that the hawk's killer instinct is part of this harmony, not something separate. The
enjambment between lines 6 and 7 creates a breezy easiness in the middle of the stanza,
capturing the hawk's ability to fly wherever it wants.
Line 8 sees the hawk characterizing the "earth's face" as being "upward for [its]
inspection." As with other lines in the poem, this imbues the hawk with a kind of arrogant
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entitlement based on its superiority in the ecosystem. The hawk feels like it is the boss of its
world, the ultimate authority over everything below. Ironically, then, the hawk is portrayed as
a kind of God-like figure even while the rest of the poem seems to undermine the "falsifying"
morality of the Christian tradition.

LINES 9-12
My feet are ... in my foot
ANALYSIS:
The third stanza is an intriguing one, with the hawk reflecting on how it came to be the way
that it is. Its feet are "locked upon the rough bark" because it is in a state of preparedness,
ready to swoop down and pounce on its prey when the moment comes. This carries with it a
violent threat, like a "locked" and loaded gun. As with the first lines of the preceding two
stanzas, line 9 is also end-stopped, again creating the sense that the hawk is poised but
unhurried.
Lines 10-12 describe the hawk's relationship with "Creation," which, by virtue of its
capitalization, seems to intentionally allude to the Christian Creation myth. The hawk
describes how it took "the whole of Creation / To produce my foot, my each feather." The
allusion is important because the poem is drawing a distinction between human morality,
which in the West is largely informed by Christianity, and the natural laws that govern the
hawk's behavior. This line can equally apply to the science of evolution—the hawk is the result
of all the changes that nature has been through over millions of years. In a way, it sees itself as
the pinnacle of this process. The singling out of the "foot" and "each feather" is a way of
pointing the reader towards the hawk's perfection, how it is so well-suited to its hunting
instinct.
Line 12 repeats two words from earlier in the stanza: "Creation" and "foot." The first is an
example of antanaclasis (when a word is repeated but with a different meaning) because now
"Creation" refers not just to the process that made the hawk but to the prey that the hawk holds
in its claws too. This again points towards a kind of natural law in which all animals—both the
violent ones and the victims of that violence—are part of nature's beauty. This repetition also
shows the hawk's power; the fact that it can "hold Creation" reinforces its sense of
superiority. The repetition of "foot"—which is diacope—is interesting because the foot goes
from being a body part at rest to a kind of deadly weapon, underscoring the hawk's violent
power. The enjambment at the end of line 12 sets up the next stanza, conveying the hawk's
sense of freedom.
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LINES 13-16
Or fly up … off heads –
ANALYSIS:
Line 13 continues the phrase begun in line 12, picking up on the latter's enjambment across the
stanzas:
Now I hold Creation in my foot
Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly -
The enjambment across the stanzas indicates the hawk's freedom, the way in which it is totally
in its element. Line 13 uses the slow-sounding consonance of /l/ sounds to portray the hawk as
taking its time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Line 14—"I kill where I please because it is all mine"—expands on the hawk's attitude of
superiority. It sees the world as "all mine." If a human was to utter this kind of statement, it
would seem both inaccurate and arrogant. But the whole point here is that this sense of
entitlement is part of the hawk's natural way of being—it behaves this way instinctively
because that is its nature. Lines 15 and 16 develop this distinction between the hawk's behavior
and the inapplicability of human thought in understanding the hawk's nature:
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads -
"Sophistry" (clever but inaccurate thought) and "manners" belong to human morality, and don't
apply to the laws of nature. The hawk is not interested in questioning the way that it behaves,
but only in fulfilling what comes naturally. The brutality of "tearing off heads" makes this a
stark and shocking moment. In the undercurrent of the poem, though, is humanity's own
capacity for violence. Humans have certainly torn off a few heads, both literally and
metaphorically. A complicated question hangs over the poem: how should humans perceive
their own capacity for violence, and how can they reconcile that with the Christian idea that
violence is inherently evil?

LINES 17-20
The allotment of ... ... assert my right:
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ANALYSIS:
The fourth stanza develops the idea that the hawk acts in accordance with natural law. "The
allotment of death" in line 17 is a way of describing how the hawk "allots" death to its prey
— the word means something like "administer" or, more colloquially, "dish out." An
"allotment" can also be a small plot of land that people own and work. This implies a sense of
ownership for the hawk too (who says in the previous stanza, "it is all mine"). The end-stop in
line 17 makes this a tense and foreboding line.
Lines 18 to 20 offer a neat and accurate summary of the way that the hawk is presented
throughout the poem:
:For the one path of my flight is direct through the bones of the living. No arguments
assert my right::
In other words, the hawk's singular, natural purpose is to kill. The use of "one" here is
important; it implies that the hawk has one true nature, and that everything it does expresses
this natural law. It exists to kill—and it will. "No arguments assert [its] right" because it
doesn't need the world of human logic to justify its actions. Additionally, the enjambment
between lines 18 and 19 gives the phrase a feeling of directness, as though it is overpowering
any need for punctuation or pause.

LINES 21-24
The sun is ... things like this.
ANALYSIS:
The final stanza discusses the way that the hawk has never "changed," will not "change," and
intends to "keep things like this." In other words, this section is about a kind of permanence.
Of course, this is not the way that nature actually works: species come and go out of existence.
But the hawk—in this poem at least—is so dominant that it seems almost impossible that this
kind of fate could ever come about.
Line 21 sees the hawk state that "The sun is behind me." This creates a striking visual image
of the hawk existing between the sun and earth. The mention of a planetary body (the sun)
lends a cosmic scale to this final stanza, making the hawk seem somehow destined to occupy
this place in the world—an idea that has been played with throughout the poem. This image
also emphasizes how dangerous the hawk is to other creatures. In fact, it's interesting to note
that humans have an inbuilt reflex to turn around when a cloud goes across the sun. This is
thought to be based on a reaction to a potential threat from above or behind, including from
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birds of prey. Regardless of this reflex's origin, the hawk's position between the sun and earth
means that it casts a shadow below, indicating its mysterious and threatening power.
Line 23 again reinforces the idea that the hawk has agency over its entire world: "My eye has
permitted no change." Again, this portrays is it as a kind of godlike figure surveying its
kingdom. Indeed, the poem concludes on this note, with the hawk insisting it is "going to
keep things like this." Of course, the hawk doesn't actually have godlike powers—but this
suggestion speaks to the powers that it does have, namely the ability to administer death to its
prey, soaring above the world while looking down on what awaits below. The end-stops
throughout this stanza also contribute to its air of finality and authority.

VOCABULARY:

 The Wood (Line 1) –

A wood is a substantial gathering of trees. It is pretty much the same as a forest, though forests
are usually considered larger than woods.

 Falsifying (Line 2) –
If something is falsified, it is altered in a misleading way. The hawk is hinting that humans
indulge in "falsifying" thoughts—like the idea that violence is evil. It distances itself from such
ideas.

 Buoyancy (Line 6) –
Buoyancy relates to the power to float. Like a leaf floating on the surface of water, the hawk is
buoyant on the air.
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 Creation (Line 10,12) –
The capitalization of this word suggests that it relates to religious myths about the way the world
was made, such as the Genesis story in the Bible. But it also carries with it suggestions of
evolution too.

 Sophistry (Line 15) –

Sophistry relates to clever but false logic or argumentation. As with the mention of "falsifying" in
line 2, the hawk is implicitly criticizing that way human believe that violence is inherently evil.

 Manners (Line 16) –

Manners can mean a general set of behaviors, but also has a more specific meaning that relates to
social conventions and politeness. The point the hawk is making is that it doesn't need any of
these.

 Allotment (Line 17) –

To allot something is to deal it out—the hawk "allots" death to its prey whenever it (the hawk)
feels like it. An allotment is also a small plot of land that people use to grow fruits and
vegetables, perhaps hinting at the hawk's sense of ownership over the land below.

 Assert (Line 20) –

To assert something is to insist, particularly in relation to an argument. A politician, for instance,

might assert that their policies are better for the country than someone else's. In contrast to this,
the hawk's right to kill doesn't rely on any argumentation; it's simply how nature is.

 Roosting:

Particular time when the birds sleep at night

FORM:
"Hawk roosting" is made up of six quatrains. That said, this is the only real formal constraint
placed on the poem—there is rhyme scheme. However, the quatrains, combined with the poem's
extensive use of end-stopped lines, do give the poem a sense of order and patterning.
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METER:
"Hawk roosting" does not follow a regular metrical scheme, but is rather written in free verse.

RHYME SCHEME:
"Hawk roosting" doesn't have a rhyme scheme. The only perfect rhyme in the poem occurs in the
first stanza. Indeed, the reader could be forgiven for then expecting a scheme based on this
rhyme to follow in the later stanzas. Lines 3 and 4 rhyme "feet" with "eat": Between my hooked
head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. This rhyme occurs in the hawk's
dream, as if rules of the poem have been suspended for the moment. Here, the perfect rhyme
coincides with the hawk's own dreams of perfection. The sound of the rhyme embodies the
"perfect kills." There's "trees" and "me" in the second stanza, "slowly" and "body" in the fourth
stanza, "death" and "direct" in the fifth stanza, and "began" and "change" in the sixth stanza.

SPEAKER:
The speaker in this poem is none other than the hawk itself. The hawk is personified throughout,
giving the poet (and the reader) the chance to imagine the interior thoughts of this fearsome bird
of prey. In particular, this technique is useful because it allows the poem to explore differences
between the hawk's attitudes and behaviors and those of humankind.

SETTING:

The poem is set within the hawk's natural habitat: "the wood" (which is pretty much the same as
a forest). The poem opens with the hawk sitting at the top of a tree, its eyes closed in a state of
rest. Stanza two expands on the setting, with the hawk noting the way that the "high trees" and
"the air's buoyancy and the sun's ray" all seem perfectly suited to its way of being. In other
words, the natural setting is perfectly attuned to the hawk. But there's another dimension to the
setting, too. The poem is very much an interior monologue, set within the mind—or the imagined
mind—of the hawk. So in terms of setting the poem is as much about the hawk's psychology as it
is about the actual landscape.

TONE:
It is confident, superior and arrogant. Is seems to have all the power to do whatever it pleases
without having to think about the consequences.
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IMAGERY:
The whole poem is a metaphor showing that hawk is as powerful and mighty as the God that
made him. The hawk personified as some king of a murderer.

STRUCTURE AND FORM:

Sentences are quite small. The poem is divided into three parts. The first two stanza show the
physical superiority of the hawk. The next two stanza illustrate the hawk’s power over nature and
the last two stanza justify why he kills. It is a dramatic monologue.

THEMES:
1. DEATH:
The hawk is a cunning and silent death from above, a bird of prey often portrayed as the noble
killer who perches on top of the food chain. The poem begins with the regal image of the hawk
sitting “on top of the wood … and the earth’s face upward for my inspection.” The theme of
death in “Hawk Roosting” may be closely tied to its images of creation, as many religions also
believe our lives on this earth are temporary. The hawk’s speaking tone, with its elevated diction
bordering on arrogance, combined with the bird’s physical position overlooking the whole of its
world, seem to place it firmly in control of life or death. Even the “Creation” which produced its
claws and “each feather” now becomes its prey, gripped firmly in its talons. While the subject of
death is often weighted with grief and remorse, the hawk is emotionless in its discussion,
referring to it as an “allotment,” as if it were to be rationed out. There is no room for remorse in
that small skull, since the bird’s path toward survival “is direct / through the bones of the living.”

2. VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY:

While “Hawk Roosting” does portray images of violence, as in the line “My manners are tearing
off heads,” this theme is balanced by a sort of nonchalant tone that diffuses the cruelty normally
associated such a harsh act. Some critics have called the hawk’s ability to kill without remorse
and speak of her killing with such casual ease proof the bird is symbolically a fascist, citing lines
like “I kill where I please because it is all mine.” Ted Hughes denies this, instead saying he
intended the bird to represent “Nature thinking. Simply Nature.” Hughes may have put himself
(and the hawk) in the line of criticism by crafting the voice of the poem in first person. By
making the bird the narrator, the reader feels as though he or she is listening to another person
talking, and judges what is said accordingly. Perhaps a central theme of “Hawk Roosting” is that
violence and cruelty are really a matter of perspective: while to humans any harmful act upon
another person is cruel, in nature there are laws of survival which cannot or should not be judged
in human terms.
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3. NATURAL LAW:
When Hughes himself defended the hawk against accusations of cruelty and of even being a
fascist, he said he rather intended the bird to represent “Simply Nature.” Perhaps this means the
poem’s theme shows that while a human act of violence against another human can be judged as
wrong, nature has its own set of laws. Hughes has said that we are too “corrupted” by Christian
morality and judgment to be able to see nature. The hawk doesn’t kill out of anger, evil or greed,
but out of pure survival, a need for “perfect kills and eat.” The sense that the bird’s actions
follow a “Law” which should not be questioned are reinforced by lines that repeatedly refer to
“legal” phrases, such as “my inspection,” “sophistry” and “No arguments assert my right.”
Instead the hawk follows a natural law that has been in place for so long it will remain long after
humans have left the earth. As the poem begins with “inaction,” so it ends “nothing has changed
since I began. / My eye has permitted no change. / I am going to keep things like this.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:
ALLITERATION:
When two or more words are linked that share the same first consonant sound.
Line 3: “h,” “h,” “h”
Line 6: “a”
Line 8: “f,” “f”
Line 11: “m,” “f,” “m,” “f”
Line 12: “m,” “f”
Line 13: “f”
Line 14: “I,” “I,” “i,” “i”
Line 15: “i,” “i”
Line 16: “M,” “m”
Line 17: “a,” “o”
Line 19: “Th,” “th,” “th”
Line 24: “th,” “th”

ALLUSION:
An allusion is a reference, typically brief, to a person, place, thing, event, or other literary work
with which the reader is presumably familiar.
Line 10: “Creation”
Line 12: “Creation”
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APOSTROPHE:
As a literary device, an apostrophe is a poetic phrase or speech made by a character that is
addressed to a subject that is not literally present in the literary work.

Line 5: “The convenience of the high trees!”

CAESURA:
A caesura is a pause that occurs within a line of poetry, usually marked by some form of
punctuation such as a period, comma, ellipsis, or dash. 
Line 1: “wood, my”
Line 2: “Inaction, no”
Line 11: “foot, my”

CONSONANCE:
Consonance is a literary device that refers to the repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line
of text.
Line 1: “t,” “t,” “d,” “d”
Line 2: “n,” “n,” “n,” “f,” “f”
Line 3: “n,” “h,” “k,” “h,” “n,” “h,” “k”
Line 4: “r,” “n,” “p,” “r,” “r,” “p,” “r”
Line 5: “n,” “n,” “n,” “r,” “s”
Line 6: “r,” “s,” “n,” “c,” “n,” “s,” “n,” “r”
Line 7: “r”
Line 8: “th,” “r,” “th,” “f,” “p,” “r,” “f,” “r,” “n,” “p,” “n”
Line 9: “ck,” “k”
Line 10: “t,” “t,” “k,” “C,” “r”
Line 11: “r,” “m,” “f,” “m,” “f”
Line 12: “n,” “n,” “f”
Line 13: “l,” “v,” “l,” “v,” “ll,” “l,” “l”
Line 14: “k,” “ll,” “l,” “s,” “c,” “s,” “s,” “ll”
Line 15: “r,” “n,” “r,” “n,” “m”
Line 16: “M,” “m,” “r,” “r,” “r”
Line 17: “Th,” “t,” “t,” “th”
Line 18: “th,” “th,” “t,” “t”
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Line 19: “Th,” “th,” “th”
Line 20: “r,” “m,” “t,” “r,” “t,” “m,” “r,” “t”
Line 21: “n,” “n”
Line 22: “N,” “n,” “n,” “n”
Line 23: “M,” “m,” “n,” “n”
Line 24: “ng,” “th,” “ng,” “th”

DIACOPE:
Diacope is a rhetorical device that involves the repetition of words, separated by a small number
of intervening words. It comes from the Greek word thiakhop, meaning “cutting in two.”
Line 3: “hooked,” “hooked”
Line 10: “Creation”
Line 11: “foot”
Line 12: “Creation,” “foot”
Line 22: “changed”
Line 23: “change”

END STOPPED LINE:

Line 1: “closed.”
Line 3: “feet:”
Line 4: “eat.”
Line 5: “trees!”
Line 7: “me;”
Line 8: “inspection.”
Line 9: “bark.”
Line 11: “feather:”
Line 13: “slowly -”
Line 14: “mine.”
Line 15: “body:”
Line 16: “heads -”
Line 17: “death.”
Line 19: “living.”
Line 20: “right:”
Line 21: “me.”
Line 22: “began.”
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Line 23: “change.”
Line 24: “this.”

ENJAMBMENT:

Enjambment is a literary device in which a line of poetry carries its idea or thought over to the
next line without a grammatical pause.
Line 2: “dream”
Line 3: “Between”
Line 6: “ray”
Line 7: “Are”
Line 10: “Creation”
Line 11: “To”
Line 12: “foot”
Line 13: “Or”
Line 18: “direct”
Line 19: “Through

PERSONIFICATION:
Giving human quality to other things. The hawk personifies humans and superiority by saying
“hooked” and “feet”. And “earth’s face…”
Lines 1-24

ASSONANCE:
Assonance is a literary device in which the repetition of similar vowel sounds takes place in two
or more words in proximity to each other within a line of poetry or prose.

Line 1: “y,” “eye”

Line 2: “ea”
Line 3: “ee,” “ee”

Line 4: “ee,” “e,” “ea,” “e,” “ea”

Line 9: “o,” “o”

Line 20: “y,” “i”

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IRONY:
Ironically the hawk’s intentions of “tearing off heads” are described as being “manners”.

HYBERBOLE:
“It took the whole of creation to produce my foot, my each feather”, to describe position at the
top of hierarchy.

METAPHOR:
The whole poem is a metaphor.

IMAGERY:
“Allotment of death”, “top of the woods”, “high trees”, “rough barks”, “tearing off heads”.