0 Hawk Roosting example essay topic

Thesis statement: Although many the 20th-century English modern poets announce their breaking with the 19th-century English Romanticism, there still remain Romantic traditions in some of the modern poets, such as Ted Hughes. In this essay, I discussed Romantic tradition in his! ^0 Hawk Roosting! +/- and compared it with Shelley!'s! ^0 To a Sky-lark! +/-, who is one of the 19th-century Romantic poets. I. Introduction of Ted Hughes II. Analysis of Ted Hughes!'s! ^0 Hawk Roosting! +/- A. The Poem as a Whole B. Discussing it in Three Aspects 1.

Manners of the Hawk; 2. Relations between the Hawk and the Nature around it; 3. Change of the Nature since the Appearance of the Hawk. C. Evaluation of its Structure, rhythm, language, etc. D. Relationship between the Hawk and the Poet. Analysis of Shelley!'s!

^0 To a Sky-lark! +/- A. Analysis of the Image of the Sky-lark B. Contrast between the Sky-lark and Human Suffering C. Relationship between the Sky-lark and the Poet IV. Comparison of the Two Poems A. Similarities of the two spirits praise in the two poems B. Similarities of the two birds! relationship between the two Poets Among the modern British poets, Ted Hughes (1930-) is regarded as one of the best British poets and along with Philip Larkin as representative of the English poetry since the Second World War. The publishing of his of two volumes of poetry, Hawk in the Rain (1957) and Lupercal (1960) has established his reputation as a prominent poet of nature and animal in the 1960's. In 1956, he married Sylvia Plath, an American poet, and their living together proved a fruitful period of both of their poetry creation.

Hughes is a poet writing in the romantic tradition. The introduction of Ted Hughes in Contemporary Literary Criticism noted that he is a poet of! ^0 nature in the raw, of primitivism, pessimism, and natural destruction! +/- (! ^0 HUGHES, Ted, 1930-!

+/-, 1974, p. 197). In his poetry, Hughes is preoccupied with the writing of nature, animal life and the elemental forces of non-human life. His themes express the powerful, often violent, energies of nature as well as the relationship between these energies and the divided nature of modern man. In his early volume of poetry, Hughes mainly writes about animals.

By creating animals like hawks, jaguars, pikes and thrushes in the most vivid and dynamic way, he manages to express the intense energy and physical presence of the animal and natural world.! ^0 Hawk Roosting! +/- from Lupercal (1960) is a poem about the strength of the hawk. In this essay I want to discuss the romantic tradition in the writing of Hughes by comparing his! ^0 Hawk Roosting! +/- with the 19th-century romantic poet Percy Bys she Shelley!'s poem!

^0 To a Sky-lark! +/-. Here is the full text of! ^0 Hawk Roosting! +/-: Hawk Roosting 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. 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. 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 Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly! a I kill where I please because it is all mine.

There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads! a The allotment of death. For the one path of flight is direct Through the bones of the living. No arguments assert my right: 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 poem gives us the first impression as a static picture! aa hawk sitting in a tree upon the wood and roosting. There is no action in this picture, only mind works. The poem is written in the first person, which gives us a sense of self-centred manner of the hawk, an evidence of which is the extremely frequent appearance of the first-person pronoun (21 times in all, including 6 times of! ^0 I! +/-, 13 times of! ^0 my! +/-, twice of!

^0 me! +/- and once of! ^0 mine! +/-, averagely 3.5 times in each stanza). The first line of the first stanza! ^0 I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed! +/- and the first line of the third stanza! ^0 My feet are locked upon the tough bark! +/- reflect a strong self-awareness of the hawk.!

^0 Eyes! +/- and! ^0 feet! +/- are two most important organs and symbols of the energy of the hawk. They are described as! ^0 closed! +/- and!

^0 locked! +/- respectively. The two past participles used here imply the subjects of the verbs! ^0 close! +/- and! ^0 lock! +/- are not!

^0 eyes! +/- or! ^0 feet! +/-, which gives us a sense the! ^0 eyes! +/- or the! ^0 feet! +/- are not controlled by themselves. Actually they are both in the control of the mind or, more precisely, the will of the hawk. There are mainly there aspects in this poem, that is: 1. the manners of the hawk; 2. the relations between the hawk and the nature around him; 3. the change of the nature since the appearance of the hawk.

The first stanza, the first line of the third stanza, the last two lines in the fourth stanza, and the first three lines in the fifth stanza are the depictions of the manners of the hawk. In the first stanza, the hawk is depicted as sitting still in the wood. It is in the state of! ^0 inaction! +/-, with no falsifying dream in his mind.! ^0 hooked head! +/- and! ^0 hooked feet! +/- vividly depicted the image of the hawk, grim and fierce.

Then the first line of the third stanza depicts the feet of the hawk. The feet are the only physical contact of the hawk with nature! a! ^0 My feet are locked upon the rough bark! +/-. The! ^0 rough bark! +/- is the symbol of the nature.

This line means the connection of the hawk and the nature. Then the hawk announces! ^0 There is no sophistry in my body: /My manners are tearing off the heads! a //The allotment of death.! +/- The manners of the life of the hawk are instinctual, powerful and dominating (! ^0 no sophistry!

+/-, ! ^0 tearing off the heads! +/- and! ^0 the allotment of death! And the reason of this is! ^0 the one path of my flight is direct / Through the bones of the living! +/-, which gives the hawk a mysterious, supernatural power. There is an allusion! aa contrast between human and the hawk, which from!

^0 no falsifying dream! +/-, ! ^0 no sophistry! +/-, ! ^0 direct! +/-, etc. we can see.

They allude the in the modern society human weakness of always having falsifying dream and sophistry and indirect way of dealing with things, and being lost the instinctive nature of themselves. The relations between the hawk and the nature lie in the second stanza, the third stanza, the first two lines of the fourth stanza, the last line of the fifth stanza and the first line of the last stanza. In the second stanza, several natural objects are referred! athe high trees, the air, the sun!'s ray and the earth. These objects are the basic elements of nature. Their existences are just the! ^0 convenience! +/- and!

^0 advantage! +/- to the hawk or for his! ^0 inspection! +/-. The relations between the hawk and the nature is not only harmonious (! ^0 convenience! +/-, !

^0 advantage! the hawk is dominating to the nature (! ^0 inspection!! ^0 The earth!'s face upward! +/- indicates this dominating is a sort of harmonious dominating. This stanza also alludes to the human weakness in dealing with the nature in contrast with that of hawk.

Since entering into the modern period, the relationship between the human society and the nature became no more harmonious as before. Civilization made human more and more estranged from the nature. However, human could not overcome and become the master of the nature. The third stanza and the first two lines in the fourth stanza further explain the relationship between the hawk and the nature. The hawk is produced by nature (! ^0 It took the whole creation / to produce my foot, my each feather: ! but it is above the nature (!

^0 Now I hold Creation in my foot // Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly -- / I kill where I please because it is all mine.! The hawk came out of the nature, and through the nurture of the nature it becomes the dominator of the nature. The word! ^0 Creation! +/- is well-chosen, which has appropriately reflected the relationship between the hawk and the nature. The verb! ^0 hold! +/- and!

^0 revolve it all slowly! +/- depicts the firmness and easiness of the control of the nature by the hawk. The last line of the fifth stanza and the first line of the last stanza state the unarguable status of the hawk (! ^0 No arguments assert my right: !! ^0 The sun is behind me! +/- means even the sun, the energy source of the nature, is respectful to the hawk, further showing the relations between the hawk and the nature. The last three lines of the poem are about the change of the nature since the appearance of the hawk and its assertion of its authority to the nature.! ^0 Nothing has changed since I began! +/- implies the ruling status of the hawk to the nature.

The hawk!'s ruling of the nature is so firmly that no one could shake it. Grammatically speaking, ! ^0 I began! +/- is not correct, because the subject of the intransitive verb! ^0 begin! +/- should be a thing if there is no object following it. But this expression appropriately indicates the supremacy and unarguable authority of the hawk.!

^0 My eyes permitted no change! +/- states the reason of no change. It indicates the will of the hawk and his inspection of the nature. The last line! ^0 I am going to keep things like this! +/- is its assertion of its supremacy and power. The structure of poem is an organic whole.

The procession follows the sequence of 1!' u 2!' u 1!' u 3, and is logically clear. The image of the poem is simple, vivid but rough and sharp-edged. The rhythm is bold, strong and rapid, producing an effect of strong violence and primitive strength. For example, the first line of each stanza except for the fourth stanza, is a complete sentence or even a noun phrase, making the structure clear and reflecting the easy manners of the hawk. The language is generally colloquial with a few relatively complex and polysyllabic words (e. g.!

^0 falsifying! +/-, ! ^0 sophistry! +/-, etc. ), reflecting the easiness of the hawk and the sophistication of human. The meaning of this poem is not only a description of the hawk. In fact, it is the praise of a primitive natural force, an energy, a spirit. The relation between the hawk and the poet is the poet!'s intensely subjective identification with this force and spirit.

What the hawk possesses, that is, the primitive natural force and energy which are beyond the limit of human experience is what the poet himself aspires for. Shelley!'s! ^0 To a Sky-lark! +/- is a poem in praise of a sky-lark. It employs the form the speech of the poet to the sky-lark. Here the picture of the sky-lark is dynamic. There are not many words about its physical form except for its voice.

Large amount of similes and metaphors are used to describe the bird, such as! ^0 a cloud of fire! +/-, ! ^0 star of heaven! +/-, ! +/-a rain of melody! +/-, ! ^0 a poet! +/- etc., etc...

The sky-lark is the emblem of a nonmaterial spirit of pure joy, beyond of all earthly things including human experience, which we can see from line 15, ! ^0 Like an unbodied joy whose race is just began! +/-, and line 31, ! ^0 What thou art we know not! +/-. From stanza one to twelve are the depictions of the sky-lark. From stanza thirteen on to the end, the poem deals with the contrast between the sky-lark and human, for example, Teach us Sprite or Bird, What sweet thoughts are thine; I have never heard Praise of love or wine That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine: Chorus Hymeneal Or triumphal chaunt Matched with thine would be all But an empty vaunt, A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.

Compared with the divinity of the voice of the sky-lark, the human! ^0 triumphal chaunt! +/- would be! ^0 an empty vaunt! +/- and there is! ^0 some hidden want! +/- in it. And comparing with the sky-lark, the poet depicts the human suffering conditions, like We look before and after, And pine for what is not! a Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught! a Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

The sky-lark is described as a spirit, unearthly, beyond moral, beyond all kinds of sufferings in the human world. It is a! ^0 poet! +/- and! ^0 Scorner of the ground! +/-. To the poet, the sky-lark is something to learn from, which we can see from line 61, !

^0 Teach us Sprite or Bird! +/- and the last stanza, Teach me half the gladness That thy brain must know, Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow The world should listen then! aas I am listening now. Here the sky-lark gives the poet some inspiration to say something for the world to listen, that is, to write down this poem. Comparing these two poems about birds, there are many similarities. It is not hard for us to find that both are in praise of a spirit, an energy lying in the bird depicted more than just the bird itself. The spirits praised are natural, primitive, pure, unearthly and beyond the limit of human experience. Besides, both poems are highly subjective and both poets tend to identify themselves with such kind of spirit, the energy.

Therefore, in this sense, we can see in Ted Hughes there remains the spirit of a romantic poet.

Bibliography

Riley, C., & Harte, B. (Eds. ). (1974).
HUGHES, Ted, 1930-.
In Contemporary literary criticism (Vol. 2). (p. 197). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company. Shelley, P.B. (1820).
To a Sky-lark. In H. Bloom & L. Trilling, etc. (Eds. ), The Oxford anthology of English literature. (Vol. 2). (pp. 449-52). London, Toronto: Oxford University Press. Hughes, T. (1960) Hawk Roosting.
In G. MacBeth (Ed. ), Poetry 1900 to 1975 (p.