Robert Penn Warren Evening Hawk Analysis

Freedom is a right that every human should have. Without freedom, the world is a dim and dull place. The poem,“Hurt Hawks” by Robinson Jeffers is about injured hawks that face the issue of no longer having freedom and feeling defeated. Throughout this poem, Jeffers uses symbolism, exposition, conflict, tone, as well as falling and rising action to deliver a poem with character. The second piece of literature, “Silent Protest” by Shadi Eskandani is about the fight for women’s rights in the Muslim religion and culture. The women are protesting for freedom of choice, they want to be able to make their own decisions on what they can do and wear without being scolded for their actions by the men. The author uses symbolism, stereotypes, exposition, irony, and conflict in the short story to develop a well-rounded approach to the issue. The two works of literature are connected by the common theme of freedom and the want for all creatures to have it. Freedom should not be a privilege, freedom should be a right.

“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. Additionally, he implies that the bird will never fly again, which means that it will be in agonizing pain and die of starvation. Jeffers goes on to state, “The wild God of the world is sometimes merciful to those/ that ask for mercy, not often to the arrogant” (13-14). Jeffers could be referring to the Christian God who shows mercy to those who believe in him and do his work while on earth. Jesus Christ rewards those who are not arrogant and do not sin against him, rather live in fellowship with him. The hawk is depicted as arrogant and humble in his last moments before death and had he asked for mercy he might have had an easier passing.

She utilises a diptych structure which portrays the contrast of a child’s naive image of death to the more mature understanding they obtain as they transition into adulthood. This highlighted in ‘I Barn Owl’ where the use of emotive language, “I watched, afraid/ …, a lonely child who believed death clean/ and final, not this obscene”, emphasises the confronting nature of death for a child which is further accentuated through the use of enjambment which conveys the narrator’s distress. In contrast, ‘II Nightfall’, the symbolism of life as a “marvellous journey” that comes to an end when “night and day are one” reflects the narrator’s more refined and mature understanding of mortality. Furthermore the reference to the “child once quick/to mischief, grown to learn/what sorrows,…/no words, no tears can mend” reaffirms the change in the narrator’s perspective on death through the contrast of a quality associated with innocence, “mischief”, with more negative emotions associated with adulthood, “sorrows”. The narrator’s changing understanding of the inevitability of death across the two sections of the poem illustrates the dynamic and contrasting nature of the human

The poem, “Eating Together” by Kim Addonizio is about a woman observing a friend at a restaurant. Not only is her friend eating, but she is also slowly dying. There is a hidden message behind the poem to convey a certain message. Kim Addonizio uses tone, personification, word choice, and description to get the message across to the readers. While there are a plethora of tools, restrictions, and conventions for making a poem, a variety of genres can incorporate a similar message.

“I have a rendezvous with Death”. This poem is written by Alan Seeger. It talks about situation of speaker in war on theme of death. He starts his title “I have a rendezvous with Death” with paradoxical words. The word "rendezvous" is a positive term where people arrange to meet each other with willing. For the word "Death" also known as in negative term means losses that no one wants to meet with him. He also uses ironic diction. There are three stanzas; six, eight, and ten lines. Including to rhyme scheme throughout each stanza.

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. As an illustration, lines 8-9 state, “we hear/

Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.

My considered response is on the poem, “Did I Miss Anything?” by Tom Wayman. This poem is about a teacher that is answering the question, “did I miss anything”. The teacher does answer the question; however they do it in a roundabout, overly sarcastic and exaggerated manner. The teacher shifts from saying they did nothing while the student was absent to saying that they did everything in the next stanza. In my considered response I will explain the poetic devices I found in the poem. Secondly I will explain the characters in the poem, and lastly I will explain the shifts in the poem.

Because of the differing overall tones in each poem, it is easily inferred by the reader that the two characters have two completely different, if not opposite, views of the world. The overall tone in Hughes’ poem is dark and controlling, leading the reader to believe that the hawk is not interested in the brighter things that life has to offer. The use of phrases like “perfect kills” and “my right” emphasize the height at which the hawk views itself. Rather, he believes that he himself is at the absolute height of all creation whereas the tone of Doty’s poem is light and child-like to emphasize the attitude of the dog and his love for everything around him. Using tone in two differing poems highlights the two main differences between the hawk and the dog and their outlooks upon life.Hughes and Doty each use diction to present their characters’ differing views of the world. The diction used in “Hawk Roosting” is stronger and more intense than that of “Golden Retrievals.” By using phrases, or words, such as “of advantage” and “permitted” ultimately create the viewpoint of the hawk: the world is something to be owned and controlled, not enjoyed. However, Doty uses diction in a completely different

This poem is filled with images of death. Not, however, the images one would presume to find in your classic poem about death. Here, Hoagland points out the death that is happening constantly and all around us. The death many choose to ignore, and that many don't even notice in the first place. It's more than just death that this poem grapples with though, it's also about the act of killing. Hoagland assesses the way in which we prioritize ethically some things over others, specifically in the context of middle class consumerist society. While doing this, he slips in the subtle assertion that you can't save everything, and that entirely ethical consumption isn’t possible in the world we live in. There's a hint of remorse because of it too.

In “Looking in at Night,” Mary Kinzie composes a villanelle with palpable tension, playing with the push-pull of a set rhyming structure and a loose, forgiving metrical line. The balance between the formal and the figurative allows the speaker’s anxieties about death to both expand and contract, ending in a final quatrain that suggests resolution and acceptance.

“Old age should burn and rave at close of day” (2). The line “grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight” (13) is referring to a generally sad or sleepy subject, death. By using strong diction, a line describing dying blind men becomes hopeful with the use of words “blinding” and “sight.” These two adjectives are the opposite of one another but are juxtaposed to create a new meaning. Diction used in the poem by the speaker influences the meaning of the writing to manifest a positive tone as opposed to a negative one.

When I first opened my book to start reading Easter Wings, I was taken of guard by its shape as well as the fact that it was side ways. I did not understand why this poem, reading, was different form all the other ones we had read in the past. However, once I finished reading it became a bit clearer as to why this one was different from all the rest.

The theme of death is apparent in all of the poems. Some are natural deaths, other deaths of planned or caused. The natural deaths are unavoidable whereas the other deaths are intentional. This creates a dissimilarity between some of the poems and how death is presented.

In Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” the speaker addresses old men coming close to meeting death should avoid dying as much as possible. Although death is inevitable, they should not die without putting up a fight. Thomas encourages old men to be infuriated that death is the ending factor of life. Towards the end of the poem, we learn that Thomas’s attitude towards death is personal. He knows his father is dying; therefore, his attitude in the poem reflects his emotion towards the pain a son feels when their father is dying.