Comparing The Argument 'And Ted Hughes Hawk Roosting'

Everyone has a unique view of the world, yet poets can also provide their insight into certain worldviews through the characterization of the poem’s speakers. While the speaker of “Hawk Roosting” is arrogant and self centered, the speaker of “Golden Retrievals” has a sense of duty towards its master despite its distractible nature; despite the poems speakers being polar opposites the poems are connected in perspective since both poems explore animal points of view.
In Ted Hughes’ poem “Hawk Roosting” the Hawk sees itself as omnipotent, Hughes conveys this by using diction, tone, and allusion. The opening line “I sit in the top of the wood, eyes closed” shows that the hawk can lower its guard because it has nothing to fear, it is at the top of the forest and therefore
Hughes decision to start the poem with an “I” statement early on indicates the nature of the Hawk as egocentric. In the following stanza the Hawk describes its environment as convenient; the high trees, air, sun, and the earth are all “of advantage” to it. Since the Hawk’s world view is arrogantly self centered; it only sees nature’s elements as assets it can exploit. The references to “Creation” further prove the Hawk’s sense of self importance. Using “Creation” with a capital C is alluding to God, henceforth pushing the arrogance and superiority to where the Hawk feels omnipotent; Hughes characterizes the Hawk as the God of its world. In addition to having power over its environment, the Hawk has power over its prey, “I kill where I please because it is all mine.” The Hawk’s power is a natural right, it has no need for “arguments [to] assert [its] right.” In the final stanza the Hawk displays its power of conservation, “my eye has permitted no change / I am going to keep things like this.” The Hawk wants to keep its environment in its