English lit - Hawk roosting

I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed'

• The hawk is thinking about his place in creation which is represented by his high physical position in the trees

'Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat'

• His power is always present as he doesn't relax when he is asleep.
• The bird is a metaphor for people who kill and how completely absorbed in the power they are 

• He wrote many poems about violence in the natural world
• He often used the brutality for animals to represent how humans are brutal to gain power
• Hughes believed that spirits lived inside nature

'The airs buoyancy and the sun's ray/Are of advantage to me/ And the earth's face upward for my inspection'

• It is first person and narrated by the hawk
• He is very egotistical and believes nature is only there to help him
• The hyperbole shows he is arrogant 

'Now i hold creation in my foot'

• He thinks he is better than God 

'Between my hooked head and hooked feet'

• He is a weapon from head to toe

'My manners are tearing off heads'

• creates an arrogant and sinister tone as describes graphic words as manners

'The allotment of death'

• Imagery suggests mass death and suggests a graveyard which makes the hawk sound like a serial killer

• Regular form adds to it's strength as the words are calculated like the hawk

'The sun is behind me'

• Short sentence suggests he is superior to the sun and he believes it supports him

Stanzas reflect his thought process

• The first two stanzas focus on his physical and literal superiority'high trees'
• Middle stanzas focus on creation and his god-like power 'It is all mine'
• The final stanzas are about his killing and justifying his actions 'No arguments assert my right'