“Hawk Roosting”

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

Inaction, no falsifying 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.

—Ted Hughes

1. All of the following literary devices are used in the poem EXCEPT

(A) anthropomorphism

(B) conceit

(C) irony

(D) imagery

(E) apostrophe

2. The first two stanzas establish

I. The speaker’s perspective

II. The self-assertive nature of the speaker

III. The speaker’s position of power

(A) I only

(B) II only

(C) I and II only

(D) II and III only

(E) I, II, and III

3. Lines 9–12 most strongly convey the speaker’s

(A) condemnation of the “whole of creation”

(B) admiration of the evolutionary forces that lead to his creation

(C) superiority to creation itself

(D) realization of the futility of life

(E) awareness of his place in the world

4. In line 15, the word “sophistry” means

(A) logic

(B) manners

(C) refinement

(D) deception

(E) hospitality

5. In line 16, “My manners” is a reference to speaker’s

(A) evolutionary design

(B) sophisticated nature

(C) haughty arrogance

(D) approach to life

(E) aloof nature

6. The speaker’s word choice might best be described as

(A) elevated and cultivated

(B) arrogant and coarse

(C) assertive but respectful

(D) self-effacing and deprecating

(E) inquisitive and reverential

7. The imagery of the poem emphasizes

(A) the speaker’s dominance over the natural world

(B) the transitory nature of life

(C) the contrast between predator and prey

(D) auditory and tactile qualities of the natural world

(E) the divide between man and nature

8. The image of the sun in line 21 provides a contrast to

(A) the death of the speaker’s prey

(B) the creation of the hawk

(C) the hawk’s eye

(D) the future

(E) bones of the living

9. Which of the following best describes the tone of the poem?

(A) ambivalent

(B) arrogant

(C) antagonistic

(D) invective

(E) domineering

10. The poem is best described as

(A) a commentary on power

(B) an exposition on a universal symbol

(C) a description of a natural scene

(D) an analysis of creation

(E) a prideful digression

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