Characters and speaker

The poem “Hawk Roosting” by Ted Hughes is written in the first person and it renders the perspective of the hawk. The fact that the poet has chosen to use a being from the animal world as a speaker and main character of the poem is somewhat interesting and worth focusing upon. Still, the reader may easily recognise that the hawk might be just a symbol for a deeper message.

The narrator’s presence is felt through the use of personal pronouns. The poem itself begins with such a pronoun: “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.” (p. 151, l. 1)

There are several other personal pronouns and possessive adjectives that indicate the point of view:

“I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads–” (p. 152, ll. 2-4)

Although it may seem that the hawk  praises its condition, it is not the case. ...