Essay --

In the poems â€Å"Hawk Roosting† and â€Å"Golden Retrievals,† Ted Hughes and Mark Doty, respectively, portray differing views of the world from the perspectives of two different animals. Hughes depicts a hawk as omnipotent, cunning, and calculating in its actions and motives; whereas Doty conveys the animal perspective through a golden retrieval depicted as carefree and joyful. Through utilization of poetic devices, both authors offer contrasting characterizations of the two animals and distinct perspectives of the world. Through use of poetic devices, Hughes and Doty, respectively, characterize the hawk and the golden retrieval in different lights to ultimately reveal the animals' views on themselves. Hughes’ poem, the â€Å"Hawk Roosting,† features a self-obsessed and demanding Hawk. The author characterizes the hawk through the use of first person point of view. The use of personal pronouns â€Å"mine,† â€Å"my,† and â€Å"I† furthers the author’s point that the Hawk believes the world revolves around it and it alone. It seems oblivious to the importance of the world around it. It takes on the position of a king; the hawk presides over everything. Furthermore, the Hawk never seems to mention any other living creature. As far as it is concerned, every other creature is entirely irrelevant and has no place in the world. Moreover, the hawk sees itself as a God-like creature. The hawk may â€Å"kill where [it pleases]† and in the most gruesome â€Å"ma nner,...tearing off heads.† The hawk seems to have declared itself grim reaper at this point in the poem. The hawk has no one to answer to and thus does and plans accordingly. It almost brags to the audience about its unique ability of killing other creatures in the most brutal way possible; it enjoys the viciousness of... ...ife, demonstrating that humans also calculate and systematically plan for the future, collectively trying to be the best of the best at all times much like the hawk. Hughes’ systematic hawk makes Doty’s golden retrieval seem very much lost and distracted as each day passes. The hawk would like nothing more than to fly alone and dictate the universe, whereas the dog simply travels with his master as nothing more than a companion. The hawk recognizes the world around him with a callous superciliousness and deliberate approach for the future while the dog lives in the present and concentrates on the small, but valuable things in life. Both animals live their lives differently and individually as humans do. The utilization of an animal’s point of view is accomplished completely in both poems as the poets connect the animals’ thought processes to that of the human race.