Hawk roosting by Ted Hughes consist of six stanzas, all written in first person and with a consistency of four lines and no perceptible rhyming scheme. The poem represents the thoughts, in a self-reflective and dramatic monologue, through the immoral mind of the hawk. The bird is a symbol of the human evils of arrogance, greed, megalomaniacal, and egotistical attitude. The hawk see himself as the center of everything depicting himself as a God bringing tyranny to his disbelievers which shows the reader that nature isn’t always beautiful. Ted Hughes uses free verse in the poem to suggest that there is no limit to the power of the hawk. The opening stanza starts with the hawk being perched upon the “top of the wood” awaiting his next victim. He shows a fearless and confident figure when saying “top of the wood, my eyes closed’ indicating he has dominance over all below him and he is not in fear of the competition and predators. The hawks arrogance is shown, “Inacttion, no falsifying dream” indicating he doesn’t dream ‘needless’ dreams he just focuses on killing. The use of alliteration “hooked head” and the repetition of ”hooked” emphasis his control and egoism. The fact that the hawk says “feet” instead of claws created a personified link in the audiences mind between the hawk and humans . However he ends the stanza in a sense of desperation, “in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat”. This depicts he has to rehearse the action of killing showing the reader that he may have
“...a giant hawk—come wailin up over the meadow…” In this line, the male hawk has come to defend his deceased mate, but despite his struggles he dies by Granddaddy’s hammer. “Then Granddaddy’s other hand flies up like a sudden and gentle bird, slaps down fast on top of the camera and lifts off
In his pom entitled “Evening Hawk”, Robert Penn Warren characterizes human nature by a transition between the flight of the hawk during the day and that of the bat, or the “Evening Hawk” during the night. The hawk, as it soars in daylight, portrays how humans appear in clear light of their peers, while the bat, cruising the night sky, symbolizes what humans hide within themselves. Warren effectively expresses the meaning of this poem and its serious mood by the use of diction and imagery to appeal to the reader’s perception of sight and sound. Throughout the first part of the poem, Warren describes the journey of the hawk in the daytime to symbolize how one’s character may seem to other beings.
Hope, Rage, and Sacrifice Oppression is an illness that has plagued the world for centuries. This is shown in “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou as the birds are trapped by oppression and the birds must break free from it. Maya Angelou and Paul Laurence Dunbar use the central symbols of the free bird and the caged bird to reveal the theme of oppression. The symbols of rage and hope accompany the theme oppression.
This passage from “A white Heron”, by Sarah Orne Jewett, details a short yet epic journey of a young girl, and it is done in an entertaining way. Jewett immediately familiarizes us with our protagonist, Sylvia, in the first paragraph, and our antagonist: the tree. However, this is a bit more creative, as the tree stands not only as an opponent, but as a surmountable object that can strengthen and inspire Sylvia as she climbs it. This “old pine” is described as massive, to the point where it, “towered above them all and made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away.” (Line 8).
In the poems “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, both poets portray how different explanations to children pan out. Both poems describe the speaker being dishonest to one or multiple students, however, one is more of a little white lie while the other is a lie on a much bigger scale. The first poem utilizes personification and humor to coax a child back to sleep by easing her fears. The second poem applies homonyms and hyperbole to maintain the innocence of a room full of students. Through the use of these different literary techniques, the poets are able to express how the adults provide an explanation for children.
Daphne du Maurier’s short story “The Birds” is a piece of fiction that displays many literary elements. This story displays suspense, foreshadowing, and imagery. By using these literary elements du Maurier creates an intense story that leaves the readers wondering what happens next and wanting more. First, foreshadowing is used to reference events that will happen further into the story.
Throughout literature, an author's works always reflects their mood and character. Edgar Allen Poe is an American writer who's poem and short stories reflected on his ominous mood. In the poem, "The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe is about a raven that flies into a lonely and sad man's house, he is alone and weak, he is weary of trying to distract himself from his sorrow. It expresses Poe's sense of melancholy and gloominess. The speaker's tone changes throughout the poem dramatically changes as he realizes the true meaning of meeting with the Raven.
He has a longing inside to see his long lost friends. He states “I am stone. I am flesh [,]” this is the author describing the way he feels dead, yet he manages to live on. The reference to his reflection being, as a bird of prey watching his every
He was probably writing about his wife dying. The poem is also based on the raven being a “Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance”. While the
The human connection to birds is a fascinating thing that is often depicted in stories. Humans want to be free like birds and fly away from the troubles that are present in their life. Birds reflect the image of freedom in life, so it’s no wonder that the Bald Eagle is the emblem of the United States; a country built on the principles of freedom and equality. Two famous poets by the names of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou used the image of the bird to describe how they felt in their own life. Even though Dunbar wrote in the Reconstruction Era and Angelou wrote around the time of the Civil Rights Movement, their ideas were almost identical.
Symbolism plays a crucial role in relating both works of literature to the main theme of freedom. Robinson Jeffers uses symbolism all throughout his poem. One of the major symbols being the hawk in of itself. Birds, in general, are related to a sense of freedom, the sky is the limit. Birds have the ability to fly, and flying in itself represents freedom.
Langston Hughes is an African American Poet who is very closely connected to his culture and expresses his feelings very thoroughly through his poetry in a jazz style. Langston Hughes is a modern poet who ignore the classical style of writing poetry and instead, in favor of oral and improve traditions of the Black culture. In majority of Langston’s poetry, many of his audience seems to take away a very strong message that many can apply to themselves or to others or his poems gives you an educational background of what’s going on in the African American community right now. For example, Langston Hughes writes a poetry piece called Afro American Fragment, which gives you a great breakdown of what an everyday African American person goes through considering that their whole history is basically taken away from them. Langston seems to show his audience that in books we never hear much about what contributions a African American person has done except for being brought to America and being a slave.
“Hurt Hawks”, by Robinson Jeffers, tells the story of a hawk whose wing is hurt and a man who makes the decision to take the hawk out of its misery by killing it. Jeffers describes the hawk in the first stanza of the poem by stating, “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” (Lines 1-3). Jeffers is describing the hawk’s broken wing as the bone protrudes from the skin and blood has clotted on its wing. He describes the wing as white like a flag of surrendering to his fait.
Long, American fingers crossing over 49ers jerseys. Orioles caps plucked from foreheads. A troop of nine year olds in blue speedos impatiently tapping their feet and twisting their legs as a loudspeaker screeches overhead. A celebrity wrapped in a tight red dress, pressing a microphone to the puckered “o” of her lips as her vocal cords strive for new heights. Every Superbowl, every little league game, every hot, heated, and overcrowded band of bottoms squeezed on metal, dented bleachers, Americans, aided by pride and alcohol, bellow the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Lines one through seven define the free bird as one that “floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays” (Angelou) this is a representation of freedom and joy. The second and third stanza lines, eight through fourteen defines the caged bird that “stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage” (Angelou) where these words reference isolation and despair compared to the freedom in stanza one. These lines create a visual response of the bird’s environments. The third stanza is repeated at the end of the poem for prominence as it reflects the two birds are so different.