Hawk Roosting By Ted Hughes At the top

Hawk Roosting By Ted Hughes

At the top as he is the most powerful & important Has no time to daydream- needs to keep in the moment I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Repetition of ‘hooked’ Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. emphasises strength As if they The convenience of the high trees! were designed The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray specifically for him Are of advantage to me; And the earth’s face upward for my inspection. He looks down at the earth as he flies- also he thinks he is in charge of the entire earth

He thinks he is the only Shows his important being strength My feet are locked upon the rough bark. It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: He sees Now I hold Creation in my foot Seems over himself in charge and above everything confident and even Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly – deluded! I kill where I please because it is all mine. Sophistry = There is no sophistry in my body: sophistication My manners are tearing off heads – He has no manners- does what he likes including killing

Allotment = when you are assigned something. He is saying he decided when others live or die Image of hawk swooping down and grabbing preyviolent The allotment of death. For the one path of my flight is direct Through the bones of the living. No arguments assert my right: He is more important than the sun, which gives us all life… In charge of everything 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. He is in complete control and will decide everything

Answer the following questions using PEE and explain the language used 1: How does the poet show us the hawk’s feelings that he is superior? 2: How does the poet show us the hawk’s more violent side? 3: Where does the poet use personification in the poem? How does the personification help to show the hawk’s opinion of himself? 4: Why do you think this poem was included in the ‘Conflict’ section of the Poetry Anthology?