Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes

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Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes

• Lin Yupeng

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• I. Introduction to Ted Hughes
• II. Introduction to the Poem Hawk Roosting
• III. Reading of the Poem
• IV. Analysis of the Poem Hawk Roosting

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I. Introduction to Ted Hughes(1)

• Ted Hughes(1930-1998) one of the important
  English poets in the 20th century
• dominant poet in 1960s
• Innovator who had his own poetic voice and poetic
  technique of animal symbolism
• deeply involved in the observation of the world
  of creatures

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I. Introduction to Ted Hughes(2)

• Hughess poetry strong feelings and urgent
  ,brilliant images
• His studies of nature and anthropology gave him a
  view of man as being both opposed by the
  primitive forces of nature and also as containing
  those same forces withn himself.
• He was concerned with strong and sometimes
  violent forces of nature, but he wrote with great
  powers of imagination as if from inside the birds
  and animals.

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Introduction to Ted Hughes(3)

• His poetry unsentimental, written in rough,
  harsh, sometimes disjointed lines, emphasizing
  the cunning and savagery of animal life.
• When writing about people he also stressed the
  instinctive, animal side of human nature rather
  than the intellectual .However, his insight and
  the structure of his poems show his keen
  intellect.

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Introduction to Hughes(4)

• an important infuence on a group of younger poets
  in the 1960s , known as The Tribe of Ted.
• In 1985 appointed Poet Laureate.
• Hughes married Sylvia Plath(1932-1963),a famous
  Amerian poet, in 1956 and they had two children.
  Later they separated, which, people suggested
  ,may have contributed to the suicide of Plath in
  1963.

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II. Introduction to the Poem Hawk Roosting(1)

• This is a famous poem of the poets and a very
  special one in that the image of the bird was
  quite new and striking in the history of English
  poetry.Different people may have different
  interpretations of the hawk in the poem. There
  have been quite controversial views as to the
  meanings of the poem and the image of the hawk.

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Introduction to the Poem(2)

• The whole poem is a monologue of ,or psychology
  about, the hawk. The bird, perched on the top of
  the trees, inspects the land below him and has
  some arrogant ideas of himself, thinking that he
  holds Creation in his feet and all is there for
  him to kill and eat, and that he does not need
  arguments to assert his right and he is going to
  keep things like this for ever.

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III. Reading of the Poem

• 1.Some questions
• 1) What is the birds personality?
• 2) Is this a matter-of-fact description of the
  hawk and his psychology or does it have symbolic
  or allegorical meanings?
• 3) What are characteristics of Hughes poetry?

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2. Understanding of some of the words(1)

• inaction, without any action, in a static state
• falsifying,make false so as to deceive represent
  falsely
• hooked,bent like a hook
• rehearse, practise speech, performance etc.
  before giving it in public
• buoyancy,power to float in a fluid

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2. Understanding of some of the words(2)

• Creation, the original bringing into existence of
  the universe by God the world, the universe
  things created
• sophistry, false argument clever, seemingly
  sensible, but false reasoning
• manners,way of living, way of behaving concerning
  other people
• allotment,assigning or giving out portions
• No arguments assert my right, assert, state or
  declare strongly positively

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IV. Analysis of the Poem Hawk Roosting

• 1. Image/Character of the hawk
• 2. Symbolism of the hawk
• 3. Sound image of the hawk
• 4. Title and the character of the hawk
• 5.Rough poetry of Hughes
• 6.Irony in the hawk
• 7. Change of the image of the hawk in literary
  tradition (Compare this poem with other two poems
  about the hawk or the eagle,predatory birds)

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1.Image/Character of the hawk

• proud, vain , dominant, arrogant, self-centred,
  egotistic, megalomaniac
• powerful , violent, cruel, brutal, cold-blooded,
  blood-thirsty
• The hawk lives according to the rules of its own
  morality hawk is sufficient unto itself and at
  one with its environment

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2. Symbolism/Implication of the hawk

• Symbol of humanity,like a dictator or Hitler
• Symbol of violent force of nature (or nature
  itself)
• Nature now is no longer the nature in Wordsworth
  poetry ( organic , whole , in harmony with man)
  
• Nature now is disjointed and violent because man
  has done violence to nature and modern society
  and industry have destroyed the harmony between
  man and nature( anti-Romantic view).
• Hughes it is not violence, it is force.

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3. Sound image of the hawk (1)

• The title gives the hint for the leading/dominant
  sounds of the hawk the dominant consonant is h
  in the word Hawk and the dominant vowel sound is
  u or the similar one u in the word Roosting.

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Sound image of the hawk (2)

• Throughout the poem there are altogether eight
  words which have hsound hooked, head, hooked,
  rehearse, high, hold, heads, and Hawk in the
  title.(Besides there are another three in the
  last stanza behind, has, has).

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3. Sound image of the hawk (3)

• There are also eight words which contain the
  dominant vowel sound u or the similar one u
  woods,hooked hooked, took, foot, foot, Through
  and also Roosting in the title.

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Sound image of the hawk (4)

• Because the title contains these two sounds and
  because the words which contain these sounds are
  key words about the birds characteristics and
  its action, therefore these two sounds can be
  regarded as sound image of the hawk.

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Sound image of the hawk (5)

• his associated with the word hard, thus the
  soundh suggests hardness of the rock and
  firmness of the birds posture and
  hard-heartedness.
• According to Georffrey Leech certain consonants
  can be regarded as hard ones and some can be
  regarded as soft ones.

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4. The title and the character of the hawk

• Hawk Roosting(not Roosting Hawk, the former
  emphasizes action whereas the latter emphasized
  the Hawk itself)
• which suggests action in inaction,movement in
  stability,motion in motionlessness, that even if
  the hawk seems to be doing nothing , even if in
  its sleep, it is indulged in killing and in
  violence

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5. Rough poetry of Hughes

• 1) irregular lineslong and short
• 2)cacophony words combining consonant sounds
  that dont permit an easy flow of pronunciation,
  but rather produce sharpness or harshness
• 3) pauses within the lines

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6. Irony in the poem

• dramatic irony or situational irony
• The hawk thinks that he has power to keep the
  world like this forever, but we know that it is
  not true.

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7.Image of the hawk viewed in literary
tradition

• 1) Compare this poem with other two poems about
  hawks or eagles ,predatory birds.

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The EagleBy Alfred, Lord Tennyson

• He clasps the crag with crooked hands Close to
  the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure
  world, he stands.
• The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls He watches
  from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt
  he falls.

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The eagle in this poem

• symbol of outstanding personality of humanity
  uniqueness, superiority,
• courage, strength, heroism, nobility

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From Hurt Hawk by Robinson Jeffers(1887-1962)

• The broken pillar of the wing jags from the
  clotted shoulder,
• The wing trails like a banner in defeat,
• No more to use the sky forever but live with
  famine
• And pain a few days cat nor coyote
• Will shorten the week of waiting for death, there
  is game without talons.
• He stands under the oak-bush and waits
• The lame feet of salvation at night he remembers
  freedom
• And flies in a dream, the dawns ruin it.

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The hawk in this poem by Jeffers

• a kind of fallen hero, lover of freedom, symbol
  of courage, like a martyr in suffering

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Three poems compared

• 1.The Eagle
• symbol of outstanding personality , superiority,
  courage, strength, heroism, nobility
• 2.Hurt Hawks
• fallen hero, lover of freedom, symbol of courage,
  a martyr
• 3.Hawk Roosting
• Violence, Hiltler, megalomaniac, blood-thirsty

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2) Change of the hawk image(1)

• the change/development of the hawk image in
  literary history suggests the change from the
  Romantic view of nature to the modern view of
  nature(eagle, symbol of nature, is personified as
  containing some good qualities) , from
  traditional values to the modern views.

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2) Change of the hawk image(2)

• This also shows that we get the meaning not just
  from one poem, but from the context of whole
  literary tradition. The meaning of one poem can
  be enriched by other poems or other works of
  literature. This has something to do with
  tradition and intertexuality

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3) Literary tradition

• No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete
  meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation
  is the appreciation of his relation to the dead
  poets and artists. You cannot value him alone
  you must set him, for contrast and comparison,
  among the dead. I mean this as a principle of
  æsthetic, not merely historical, criticism .
• T.S.Eliot

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4) Intertexuality

• intertexuality a term coined by Julia Kristeva
  to designate the various relationships that a
  given text may have with other texts.These
  intertextual relationships include anagram,
  allusion, adaptation, translation, parody,
  pastiche, imitation and other kinds of
  transformation.

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4) Intertextuality

• The idea of intertextuality emphasizes the
  relationship between one text and another, the
  tie of all texts, and the importance of the texts
  themselves rather than the external world.