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More poems by Ted HughesTed Hughes | Print this page.Print | View and Write CommentsComments (2) | Books by Ted HughesBooks by Ted Hughes

Hawk Roosting

Ted Hughes

I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsyfing dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.

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

Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly—
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads—

The allotment of death.
For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:

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.


Submitted by Robert Güldner

Added: 1 Mar 2004 | Last Read: 28 Apr 2025 7:20 AM | Viewed: 17052 times

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URL: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/9249/ | Viewed on 28 April 2025.
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