Now I Hold Creation In My Foot, By Langston Hughes

Humans have a destructive instinct just like hawks. They are set out to survive and that’s it. Humans are willing to destroy anything, trees to make houses and animals to have food, to survive. Hawks are also willing to destroy anything to survive, such as the life of their prey so they can eat. Once a human or hawk destroys something, they do not feel bad or feel pity because they are internally evil, even if they don’t mean to be. When Hughes wrote “Now I hold Creation in my foot,” that is an example of the hawk’s internal evil killing one of God’s creations to survive. Humans have dominion over creation from God. When the hawk holds his prey in his foot, the hawk has dominion. The author is writing in first person, showing that hawks and humans are alike in a way that they both will do anything to survive and to them it doesn’t matter how it will affect anything else. “I kill where I please because it is all mine,” (Hughes); this line is an example of the internal evil and destructiveness of hawks, but more specifically humans. The poet is trying to get the point across that even though hawks are predators, so are humans. Humans will destroy trees to
“Inaction, no falsifying dream,” (Hughes), is an example of personification because when someone talks about dreaming, they are most likely talking about a human. This personification makes sense since the hawk in “Hawk Roosting” is actually referring to a human and the similarities of the evils within humans and hawks. Also, in the poem, there is imagery. “The convenience of the high trees,” (Hughes), is an example of imagery because it is allowing the reader to see the hawk sitting on a high tree waiting for prey. “My feet are locked upon the rough bark,” (Hughes), is also an example of imagery. The reader can not only see in their head that the hawk is in a high tree, but the reader can specifically see the hawk’s feet on the rough-textured tree