“Hawk Roosting” by Ted Hughes

link to full poem https://allpoetry.com/Hawk-Roosting

In the poem “Hawk Roosting” by Ted Hughes, Hughes uses several different poetic techniques to express the Hawk’s sense of self and dominance which it exerts over its environment. 

By using a first point of view for the hawk in the poem, Ted Hughes is able to show the thoughts of the hawk as it roosts high above its environment. This allows the reader to see into the mind of the hawk which is most evident in the first line of the poem “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed”. This quote shows that the hawk isn’t worried about predators because it has none, it can simply stay above everything and watch down upon its surroundings. One of the lines that stood out the most to me was the line “I kill where I please because it is all mine”. This shows the reader the hawk’s thoughts about their environment, particularly that the hawk sees the environment as theirs to conquer and theirs alone. The hawk also shows a level of grandiosity and narcissism as shown in the line “Now I hold Creation in my foot”. This is the bird equivalent of saying I hold the world in my hand.  The idea of God holding the world in his hand is something mentioned several times in the bible, notably psalms 65, and sung at many of the bible studies I’ve been a part of as a kid. This in effect compares the hawk to God in the mind of the hawk, showing his grandiosity and extreme sense of self. 

 Another poetic technique used in the poem is enjambment as used between the words foot and or in the line “Now I hold Creation in my foot- Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly”. This helps to demonstrate the hawk’s effortless flight. The idea that the hawk could hold the world in its hands or just simply fly and the world it sees as belonging to it shows us where the hawk believes it is in the world. The enjambment also functions to create a sense of movement and energy just like the hawk moving through the air as it flies away.  

Similarly to how the enjambment creates a sense of movement, the use of alliteration throughout the poem contributes to the flow and energy of the poem. The repetition of the h sound through the line “Between my hooked head and hooked feet” helps to emphasize the shape of the hawks head and feet. The beaks of hawks are hooked allowing them to tear through the flesh of their prey more easily and the hooked shape of their talon allows them to more easily snatch and hold onto their prey. These adaptations are designed to help the hawk kill, by using alteration it draws attention to the fact the hawk is designed to kill the things in its environment. Another example of alliteration in the poem occurs with the repetition of the t sound in the line “The allotment of death”.  This alliteration helps to emphasize the finality of the fate of the hawk’s prey.  When prey is captured by the hawk, the hawk acts as judge, jury, and executioner. The choice to use the word allotment not only provides the stressed t sound that creates the alliteration, but also implies that it is the hawk that dishes at death at its own discretion.  The prey have no choice in their fate. This connects back to the power the hawk exerts over its environment and the sense of its place in the hierarchy as the top predator. 

“Ode to Sleep” by Jon Sands 

“Ode to Sleep” by Jon Sands is a poem in which he personifies sleep and talks to sleep like it is a person. An Ode is a poem that glorifies or praises someone or something.  In this poem Jon Sands is showing his appreciation for sleep.  The poem doesn’t follow any rhyme scheme or structure; it is a free verse poem in one single stanza in which he personifies sleep and talks to it directly. 

In the first line he blames the hangover he has on having not slept enough by stating “I’m going to blame the insufficient time I spent with you.” This shows that Jon Sands like the rest of us are dependent upon sleep to function properly. And Jon Sands acknowledges this.  

Jon Sands then begins to reminisce upon his time sleeping simulairy to how someone would reminisce upon the time they spent with an ex-girlfriend or old friend.  He says to sleep “remember that time you made me believe I was trapped in a first made of styrofoam”. In this quote he is remembering a dream he had. As he describes the dream it suddenly goes to him flying, then to a sexual fantasy with Cate Blanchett. This all happens in one single run on sentence with no clear direction or explanation of the sequence of events, exactly like what happens in a dream.  Dreams are random and almost never make sense and Jon Sands strings together these parts of his dream likely how he experienced them random and without clear sequence. 

Jon Sands describes having to “spend a half-hour untying” himself from sleep. In this quote Jon Sands describes the hardship we all face when it comes to getting out of bed in the morning.  It can be difficult to get out of bed even when you know you need to so you can go to work or school, but the bed is so comfy you just lie there and wait, half asleep. This is something I struggle with a lot as I usually will get woken up by my cat around 7 o’clock, as she gets out of my bed to go downstairs, and then I will just wait until I can muster up enough strength to finally pull off the cover and get ready just in time for me to go to school. 

Jon Sands then uses a metaphor in the next sentence to describe sleep saying “ you slow dance magician who never calls before you come”. In this quote he is referring to the sudden and sometimes unexpected nature of falling asleep.  He then describes some of the times he has fallen asleep like on the floor of JC Penny, the train to the Bronx, the movie theater. Like a magician you never see sleep coming until suddenly you wake up and realize you’ve been asleep for a few hours.  I’ve done that my fair share of times myself. He even admits later in the poem that while he is writing this poem hungover on a plane he is feeling like he is about to fall asleep. 

In the last few lines Jon Sand describes returning to sleep as we all must do at some point. He compares himself to a buoy and sleeping to the ocean. Eventually he must wake up from sleep like a buoy must float back to the surface, but he enjoys the time he spends sleeping like a buoy below the water. Sleep is something we not only need to function, but is something we enjoy, in this poem Jon Sands tells sleep how appreciative he is of it. 

“Highway 71” by Jon Sands

The American road trip has become synonymous with American culture. In the poem “Highway 71”, Jon Sands describes what a typical American road trip is like, through a description of a road trip he went on as a boy. I related a lot to this poem as I’ve been on many long road trips myself, such as going to Myrtle Beach for summer vacation or driving to the mountains to visit family.  In this poem Jon Sands hit many of the cliches of the typical American road trip.  A lot of the same cliches I’ve experienced in the road trips I’ve been on.

In the end of the first Stanza Jon Sand includes an excerpt from a Billboard that asks the question “If you died today, where would you spend eternity”. Billboards like this are super common in rural areas around the country.  You also see plenty of “Jesus saves” or “God is the truth”.  Rural America seems to have this obsession with religion, which stands in contrast to urban areas, like Cincinnati where Jon Sands is from, or the Charlotte suburb of Huntersville where I have lived most my life. I think the reason rural areas are so much more religious than urban areas is because there are less things to do in the country. In cities and suburbs there are plenty of shops and activities to do, but in rural areas there are less options for entertainment, and so the people that live there have more time to ponder questions like, why are we here, or who made the world? Religion provides a pretty good answer to both of these questions and so as a result religion has a stronger foothold in rural America.  As a result of this heightened interest in religion in rural regions, seeing billboards promoting religion have become a staple of the American road trip.  

I genuinely thought that seeing confederate flags along the highway was just something you see here in the South, but I was surprised to read in this poem that confederate flags seem to also be in Ohio, which is surprising since Ohio was on the side of the Union during the civil war.  Being someone that lives in a southern state I’m pretty used to seeing confederate flags along the highway.  Every time I visit my cousins, who live in Morganton, for our annual family reunion, we take highway I-77 to get there.  Near Statesville, NC there is a massive 40 foot confederate flag right by the highway that we see every time we visit.  Going to the beach isn’t any different, as there’s plenty of confederate flags along those highways as well. As messed up as it might sound when me and my brother were younger we made a game of seeing who could spot the most confederate flags, or racist bumper stickers.  Unfortunately because of this country’s history,  and the obnoxious nature of many of the so called southern pride people, confederate flags have become a cliche of the American road trip.     

In his ending stanza describes watching insects dying and becoming “crusted on the windshield of the 1993 Camry” which his parents drove.  While I can relate to road trips in an old camry, as my grandparents drove me many times to the beach in their old 1999 gray camry that reeked of the cigarettes my grandfather smoked, I can’t relate to the insects on the windshield thing.  The reason I don’t associate dead insects on the windshield with the nostalgic hallmarks of a road trip like Jon Sands does, is because of a difference in age.  I’m much younger than Jon Sands, having been born in 2006, so by the time I could remember road trips pesticide usage had increased drastically.  Starting in the early 2000s farms began spraying way more pesticides, killing off most of the insects in the area.  This caused insects dying on the windshields of people’s cars to be a less common occurrence.  I found it really interesting how our difference of age results in us having different thoughts about what makes a nostalgic American road trip.  

Jon Sands

Jon Sands is a winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series, selected for his second book, It’s Not Magic (Beacon Press, 2019). He is the facilitator of the Emotional Historians workshop, a series of generative writing classes you can find out more about on IG at @iAmJonSands. His work has been featured in The New York Times, published in The Rumpus, The Millions, Cortland Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Muzzle, and many others, as well as anthologized in The Best American Poetry. He is a curator for SupaDupaFresh, a monthly reading series at Babel Loft in Brooklyn, and has received residencies and fellowships from the Blue Mountain Center, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Jerome Foundation, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. Source: Jon Sands website, https://jonsands.com/about/biography-full/