The Hawk Roosting Analysis

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The poems ‘The Tyger’ and ‘The Hawk Roosting’ reflect the balance between power, nature and good and evil. Hughes especially explores the theme of violence, juxtaposing the innocence found in “The Lamb”. Both poets Blake and Hughes explore the theme of dominance, death, beauty, balance and creation.

Hughes and Blake explore the theme of violence and death to illustrate the power, dominance and mastery of both animals. In ‘The Hawk Roosting’, the hawk says “I kill where I please because it 's all mine” in first person, demonstrating the use of violence to show power and authority in “the hawk”. The repetitive use of the pronoun “mine” and noun “I” shows the merciless, assertive and narcissistic attitude of “the hawk”. The use of the phrase “all mine” also shows the hawk 's possessive nature.

Blake explores the theme of good versus evil to question the creator’s ulterior motive. Blake uses juxtaposition and a rhetorical question based on good and evil when he writes “did he who made the lamb make thee?” to question the creator’s ulterior motive - he makes a reference to a different poem of his where he discusses the innocence of the lamb, when in this poem Blake compares the two in order to explore the balance between good and evil. Blake uses the words “fearful” and “dread” to consistently acknowledge the presence of something evil, this suggests that he believes that the creator’s actions are hypocritical as he is seen as god, but the creator is bringing evil into the

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