Hawk Roosting and Grass Different Styles of Poetry

Poetic Comparison:

"Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes and "Grass" by Carl Sandburg

Both "Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes and "Grass" by Carl Sandburg are narrated in the voices of silent, living objects in the natural world. Hughes' poem is told in the first person of a hawk while Sandburg's poem is narrated by the grass. Through personification both poets examine the place of humanity in a larger context, highlighting the extent to which what people think is important seems small when seen in relation to the big picture of nature. Hughes' poem achieves this by showing how in the eyes of an ordinary hawk, the bird is all-powerful because of his predatory capacity. The grass of Sandburg's poem is similarly powerful as it blankets the dead, without any apparent concern for the heroism the soldiers might have shown in battle or in any other facet of their lives.

The hawk's triumphant view of himself is expressed in his pride of his talons and beak: he is convinced that he is the pinnacle of all creation and the creator himself took great pains to make him:

My feet are locked upon the rough bark.

It took the whole of Creation

To produce my foot, my each feather:

Now I hold Creation in my foot.

The hawk's ability to fly and to clutch his prey is viewed as evidence, in the animal's own mind, of his superiority and also his own godlike power of life and death. Although this might seem arrogant, it has obvious parallels with how humans regard themselves. Humans, according to the Judeo-Christian tradition, see themselves as created in God's image. Hughes suggests that the hawk sees himself in a similar fashion and like human beings the hawk believes that the source of his creation justifies his ability to dominate and kill other creatures. "I kill where I please because it is all mine," says the hawk. "My manners are tearing off heads." The hawk kills without apology, as if it is his birthright. While it may be his instinct, even a necessity to survive, Hughes' choice of language suggests that the hawk misinterprets his gift. He views all of creation as his own because of his ability to kill other, small creatures. This is another parallel with the hawk and humanity. The poem ends:

The sun is behind me.

Nothing has changed since I began.

My eye has permitted no change.

I am going to keep things like this.

The hawk clearly (yet mistakenly) believes that it is by sheer force of will that he is the most important creature in the universe; he believes he rules all and he can dictate that there will be no change, despite the fact that like all living creatures he will eventually die. The hawk sees himself as the root of all creation, that the sun literally rises and sets due to his influence but this is, of course, an illusion.

In contrast to Hughes' hawk, which merely engages in musing by himself, Carl Sandburg's grass in the poem of the same title directly addresses the reader, as if the inanimate plant can speak: "Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. / Shovel them under and let me work -- / I am the grass; I cover all." To the grass, the different nationalities of the dead and the causes for which they fought are meaningless. The grass covers all of humanity in the same way, not judging anyone as either right or wrong. On one hand, this is peaceful and comforting and puts into context the various reasons people fight. On the other hand, there is also sadness that the various causes young men died for are simply more things to be swallowed up by the grass, more things to be forgotten. Although human beings may feel that the wartime causes they fight for have meaning, Sandburg states: "Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: / What place is this? / Where are we now?" The grass renders everything indistinguishable.