ted hughes

Ted Hughes uses very interesting language in the poem ‘Hawk Roosting;’ The poem is written from the point of view of the hawk, a bird of prey, who is roosting in a tree, he sees the air and earth as if they are solely made for his benefit, he sees himself as the ultimate being of Creation, he claims he has power to revolve the world, he has power over life and death, he sees himself as utterly in control of the world and wishes to keep things like this. The poet may be scared that one creature can claim so much power over its fellow creatures; He sounds very authoritative, believing he is like a god.

There is a very egotistical impression of the Hawk, he is very self-satisfied and proud, he has no qualms about killing, because he is the controller and owner of everything; he has no regard for any life but his own. If you look at the last stanza: it is made up of four single-sentence lines, which state the hawk's case very strongly and need to be read slowly and seriously. Nothing and nobody should control all of Creation like that. The tone Ted Hughes uses for the Hawk is also very overpowering; The Hawk speaks in a masterful, proud and patronising way, as if we were inferior to him, but also in a nasty, menacing way, as a warning that we might be next. The poet is questioning exactly what the nature of a god creator is, and the poet is making the point that man (who believes himself capable of most of the things the hawk claims to do) is over-reaching himself. There is a lot of emphasis on the hawk's mastery of all he sees. Each animal described has a personification, in every form. He sounds a bit like a businessman wanting to impress a rival.