Hawk Roosting
by Ted Hughes
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A dramatic monologue spoken by a hawk that embodies pure predatory power, arrogance and self-assured tyranny. Sitting at the top of the wood with its eyes closed, the hawk rehearses 'perfect kills' even in sleep. It boasts that the high trees, the air's buoyancy and the sun's rays exist for its advantage, and that the whole of Creation was made to produce its feathers and feet, 'Now I hold Creation in my foot.' It kills where it pleases, for 'it is all mine'; there is 'no sophistry in my body', and its 'manners are tearing off heads'. It needs no arguments to assert its right, for 'the sun is behind me'. The hawk declares that nothing has changed since it began and that it means to keep things exactly as they are. The poem is a chilling portrait that parallels the predatory, tyrannical instincts found in human behaviour.
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Perfect control
The hawk sits at the top of the wood with its eyes closed, wasting no energy on 'falsifying dream'. Between its 'hooked head and hooked feet' there is only inaction or the rehearsal of 'perfect kills' even in sleep. It is the picture of total, effortless control.
Creation at its service
The hawk claims that the high trees, the air's buoyancy and the sun's rays are all to its advantage, and that the earth's face is turned up for its inspection. It boasts that it took 'the whole of Creation' to produce its foot and each feather, and 'Now I hold Creation in my foot', flying up to revolve it all slowly.
The right to kill
The hawk kills where it pleases 'because it is all mine'. There is 'no sophistry in my body'; its 'manners are tearing off heads', 'the allotment of death'. Its flight passes directly 'through the bones of the living'. It is brutal power without argument or conscience.
Unchanging tyranny
'No arguments assert my right,' the hawk declares, 'The sun is behind me.' Nothing has changed since it began; its eye has 'permitted no change', and it intends to 'keep things like this'. The hawk embodies absolute, self-justifying, unchanging tyranny.