The Hawk Poem Analysis

The poem “The Hawk” written by Harold Witt explores the dominance of the fierce creatures in the natural world and powerful corrupted figures in society. Although Witt describes the hawk’s attempt to capture its prey in the poem, Witt’s ultimate purpose to write this poem is to expose the reality of the social structure in society where dominating figures controls the community. Using literary features such as symbolism and metaphor, the contrast between predator and prey, powerful and weak is explored in this poem. The diction used in “The Hawk” to describe the hawk’s action such as “tilted” and “streaked” in lines 2 and 4 foreshadows the predator preparing to launch an attack on its prey, which creates a sense of anticipation for the readers. …show more content…
This can be shown as the words to describe the hawk such as “clawed” in line 9, “tear” in line 10, and “deadly” in line 17 all contains a fiercefully, ruthless, and cruel connotation, contrasting with the words used to describe the preys such as “lost” in line 11, “hopping” in line 12 and “gentleness” in line 13. This contrast between the use of words is important as it determines the position the readers are in, thus feeling a sense of relief when “the hawk flapped up again --- tenderness hasn’t been caught”. However, readers feel a sense of dread when Witt adds on “it blended in” in line 33. The sense of dread is conveyed by using a simple sentence to end this poem, hinting the hawk being very cunning as it strikes out to its prey by using trickery by swooping down every time, sometimes as a threat, sometimes for food. Witt uses the cunning hawk to symbolize the schemes and tricks figures in power use to control their …show more content…
Witt uses the hawk as a motif to symbolize the dominating, powerful figures in society. This symbol is shown through a metaphor in line 16 as “the meekness hasn’t a chance under the eye power” where the meekness of the rabbits and lambs symbolize the ones being dominated by the powerful people as a lamb is a well-known motif as the follower. The upper class in this poem represents politicians, dictators, and those who have power in a country. Using Hitler, the dictator of Germany during World War Two, he is the figure sending out his hawks to hunt for people who dare to rebel and oppose him. The “eye of power” symbolizes the Gestapos and the SS, which are the eyes and ears Hitler send out to blend into the community and to keep an eye out for those who resist against them, just like a hawk going out to scout for its prey using their strong eyesight, hunting for those running