Language and style

Here, we will address some of the issues connected to language and style in the poem “Hawk Roosting” by Ted Hughes.

Playing with language

It is important to consider whether the poem plays with language or not. The overall language is simple and lacks complexity, but there are several word choices that indicate ambiguity. At a first reading, we can assume that the poem is a description of the hawk’s nature. Still, ambiguity is constructed through certain words:

“My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
How I hold Creation in my foot.” (p. 151, ll. 11-14)

The words “feet” and “foot” increase the ambiguity of the poem. They suggest that the hawk may be a symbol for human nature or for human existence.

Tense of the verbs

Most of the poem “Hawk Roosting” is written in the present tense: “sit” (p. 151, l. 1), “are” (p. 151, l. 8), “hold” (p. 151, l. 14), “kill” (p. 152, l. 2), “is” (p. 152, l. 2), “fly” (p. 152, l. 1), “assert” (p. 152, l. 9), etc.

The last stanza, however, presents a shift of tenses. The present tense is replaced by the present perfect tense [“has changed” (p. 152, l. 12)], the past tense [“began” (p. 152, l. 12)] and future tense [“am going to keep” (p. 152, l. 14)]. The verb tenses used in the last stanza suggest a natural cycle of life: what has been will keep on being. At the same time, the rest of the poem – implicitl...