Harold Witt's 'The Hawk'

The feeling of superiority and competency makes one arrogant and inconsiderate of others they deem as less significant due to another’s lack of power in which is crucial in the social hierarchy. Harold Witt’s ‘The Hawk’ depicts the vitality of power in a natural hierarchy that sees the world through black and white, dominance and inferiority through the use of symbolism of the hawk, an extended metaphor, and the structural features.
A combination of concrete and abstract ideas portrayed the incident in ‘The Hawk’ through the use of descriptive language. The concrete of the poem is that the hawk is simply flying through the sky above everything else searching for prey, a necessity for its survival. However, the abstract idea of the hawk represents
‘The Hawk’ comprises of a consistent rhythm, demonstrating a high level of organisation, and the precision of the hawk’s plan to attack its prey. With assistance from the rhyme scheme ABAB, Witt is showing the regularity of the hawk’s routine, how it is so accustomed to its power that it has conceived itself of its abilities. The constant use of dashes at the end of a line indicates a pause, causing emphasis on the next line, for example “became what we knew of hawks –/a clawed surprise” to create a tense mood as the word “clawed” itself insinuates an aggressive tone, allowing a sense of violence from the hawk. The intention of these dashes may be to indicate pauses of breath in between each action and thought the hawk takes, mentally and physically preparing itself for the attack. Assonance played a role in setting the mood of the poem. Witt purposely chose “bent tense” for emphasis on the hawk’s certainness to kill. Generally, assonance’s purpose was to highlight the hawk’s characteristics as it is described as “high, wide, cateyed”. Alliteration was used infrequently, however effectively. Throughout, alliteration was used mainly to bring attention to “we”, as a way to include the audience into the scenery of ‘The Hawk’ to give a sense of freedom to judge the hawk with an unaffected opinion, although the Witt has inconspicuously persuaded the audience to side with
“The hawk” represents the danger while the “lamb tottering lost” and “rabbit hopping in grass” portrays the innocence, demonstrating the contrast within the world. Witt appears resentful of members higher in the social hierarchy, as harsh, descriptive language was used to describe “the hawk”, while also in admiralty of those with power, the longing tone in “how meekness hasn’t a chance/under the eye of power”. Witt is rather ponderous, specifically in the third stanza when stated “as if nature had meant/to demonstrate by this” as if in wonderment of the way nature works and determines the power one possesses. Satire was also present as human traits such as pride, arrogance, and conceit, were vaguely hinted at through the symbolisation of the hawk. To “tear whatever it was” shows the measures one would go to ensure their possession of power, despite affecting their surroundings and such, ridiculing society for the thirst of