2. LO:
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
Hawk Roosting
3. 1. If you could do anything you wanted to do,
what would you do? List at least 3 things and
be prepared to explain why you would do
them.
2. Which people are powerful in our world? List
4. You might like to think about rulers of
particular countries, but you should also
consider people who have no political
position.
3. How do people prove they have power?
4. Is our society hierarchical?
Activity: Power
4. For each of the following words, draw a small
picture and write down five words you
associate with it:
• a hawk
• the sun
• nature.
Imagery
5. 1. The poem is about a hawk boasting about
its power. The hawk thinks that it is the
most important and powerful creature in
the world; it controls everything.
2. The hawk describes how it likes to kill its
prey in a violent way.
3. This is a metaphor for the behaviour of
political leaders or people in general.
What is the poem
about?
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
6. 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.
He is high up on a tree and
high up on the food chain
The hawk has
no time for
daydreaming
Repetition reminds us of
the hawks violent
weapons.
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
7. The convenience of the high trees!
The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.
Personification: the earth
is looking up at the Hawk
for approval.
buoyancy = power to float
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
8. 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
Someone or something with
power created him
Now he is the one with
the power to control the
earth
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
9. 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 hawks feels that he
makes the world go round-
godlike.
Violence
Sophistry = reasoning
that sounds true but
its wrong
He
doesn’t
need to
explain
why he is
so
powerful.
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
10. 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 has control of who lives
and dies!
The hawk
attacking
his prey
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
11. 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.
This suggests that the sun
supports what he is doing.
He likes to feel that he is
in total control.
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
12. • Arrogant- “Now I hold creation in my foot”
• Power-crazy-
• Self absorbed-
• Boastful-
• Egoistic-
Someone who is self-obsessed is…
Complete the rest! Use
quotations from the
poem…
13. An alternative way to approach the poem is to look
at the ideas of control and ownership. List all the
nouns used in the poem:
• something that is part of the hawk
• a natural phenomenon
• something that the hawk thinks it owns or controls.
The hawk believes the world revolves around it
literally (see line 13) as well as figuratively.
Nouns
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
14. • Form-The poem is a dramatic monologue
(when a character is speaking aloud)
• Structure- the monologue ends with a
statement about the future. This shows the
hawks power.
• Language- An arrogant tone, the hawk thinks
that he is better than anyone else.
• Personification- the earth is inferior to the
hawk.
• Violent words- the Hawk is a brutal creature.
15. Can you find the quotations
that the images refer to?
16. How does the poet create a sense of the hawks
importance?
Is the reader suppose to agree with the hawk’s
opinion of itself? What clues are there in the
poem?
Why do you think the poem is written in the
first person?
Questions
To explore the Form, structure and
language of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’.
