Hawk Roosting And Golden Retrievals

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With the works of Ted Hughes and Mark Doty in Hawk Roosting and Golden Retrievals, an idea of the views of life from an animal’s point of view are vividly painted with the assistance of literary techniques. Through each set of eyes, the world is viewed in a unique manner, from each human to each animal, the world is perceived in different lenses. In the poem Hawk Roosting by Hughes the Hawk deems to have an aggressive conceited view of life while in Doty’s “Golden Retrievals” the dog is playful and boast a “live for the moment” view of life. In order to convey the views, the authors, use syntax and diction, enjambment and caesura as well as imagery.
The way in which both authors manipulate and arrange the words of choice within their poems …show more content…

Between the two poems, Hawk Roosting uses little caesura and enjambment in comparison to the Golden Retrievals. Hughes incorporates little use of caesura and enjambment in order to show the calm and confident flow of thoughts of the Hawk. The few times caesura is used in the Hawk Roosting, come with small pauses in the form of commas. “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream.” In contrast, Doty uses periods, question marks and hyphens, which create strong pauses in between thoughts and highlight the wild course of thoughts of the Golden Retriever. “Catch? I don’t think so. Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who’s – oh joy- actually sacred. Sniff the wind, then I’m off again:” Here not only does Doty show the wild course of thoughts with caesura, he also displays this with the use of enjambment as one thought flows from line four to the start of a new stanza in line five. Within the Hawk Roosting, punctuation nearly never interrupts a line, rather gives the line a strong and confident ending. An abundance of the Hawk’s statements end with periods, solidifying the though and furthermore adding to the confidence and aggressive point of view. “I kill where I please because it is all mine.” This powerful line is met with a period which seems to conclude the statement and make it that much more dramatic. On the other hand, the poem Golden Retrievals consistently uses several forms of punctuation within the lines as well as enjambment. “And you? Either you’re sunk in the past, half of our walk, thinking of what you never can bring back, or else you’re off in some fog concerning- tomorrow, is that what you call it?” Once again, Doty includes commas, hyphens, question marks and once again enjambment which causes the thought to continue into the next

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