Hawk Roosting is a poem written by Ted Hughs and what makes this poem unique is that there are multiple views on what the poem is trying to express. Some people think that it is just a description of the lifestyle of a hawk. Other people believe that the poem is using the hawk as one big metaphorical concept to describe polities and governments who have complete power over everything and believe that their ways are the only right and all there actions are justified and none can oppose them.

I for one see this poem as a way to help us gain insight of the extreme mindset of a human driven by insanity to the point of tyranny, egotistical, aggressive, psychopathic and a complete evil mindset. I want to begin that the character sees itself as a God as it sees itself as creation and everyone fears him and if he does not see something he permits then he takes action, this is shown when the character says ‘now i hold creation in my foot/the earth face turned upwards for my inspection/my eye has permitted no change I am going to keep things like this’. References to the character seeing himself as God-like goes throughout the entire poem. The character goes on to say ‘I kill where I please/my manners are tearing off heads’ this indicates that the character is merciless, fearful and psychotic and all of this seems to be obsessive to him when he says ‘the one path of my flight is direct’ and ‘through the bones of the living’.

Imagery is used extensively throughout the poem as the entire setting (‘high trees/air’s buoyancy and sun’s rays’) and the hawk’s actions are described in great detail, if you have this poem read to you with your eyes closed you can picture everything. In addition, the result of the imagery means you also get the feeling of fear throughout the body as you gain an understanding of a person’s true capabilities. The idea of comparing the frightening mindset of a person to a hawk is a good use of personification as a hawk, a creature of nature, is an apex predator and will go to any extremes to survive.