Hurt Hawks Poetry Presentation

Brief Biography

Subject of the Poem

Context of the Poem

Form of the Poem

Language of the Poem

Hawks

Rhythm and Metrical Pattern

Division of Poem

Rhythm and Pattern

- Hawks are a reoccurring animal in Jeffers' poems

-Jeffers even named a stone tower he created after a hawk he saw while working on the structure.

Jeffers did not use pattern, rhythm. Without rhythm and pattern his grammar is an emphasis in the poem.

- Poem is divided into 2 parts

- 1st part suggests the brutal nature of life

Literary Devices

- In the 1920s, there was an advancement of poetry

- Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet, who believed in bringing poetry closer to music

- Jeffers objects idea

- He would rather keep poetry closely related to reality

“The lame feet of salvation; at night he remembers freedom”. (Part 1, Line 7)

"The broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder" ( Part 1, Line 1)

“The wing trails like a banner in defeat” (Part 1, Line 2)

Beautiful and wild, the hawks, and men that are dying, remember him. (Part 1, Line 17)

-Personification: giving the hawk the human characteristic of being able to remember

-Oxymoron: Pillars are strong and provide support and by stating that it is broken, contradicts what a pillar symbolizes

-Simile: comparing the banner in defeat to the broken wing

Soared: the fierce rush: the night-herons by the flooded river cried fear at its rising (Part 2, Line 11)

- 2nd part suggest the inhumane actions of mankind

The colons suggests relation

I'd sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk. (Part 2, Line 1)

-Line 5, "Will shorten the week of waiting for death, there is game without talons"

Talons (n) - a claw, especially one of a bird

-Stanza 3, giving the hawk human characteristics

- Line 10, "The curs of the day come and torment him

Curs (n) - a mongrel dog; a mean, cowardly person

- Line 13-14, "The wild God of the world is sometimes merciful to those/ That ask mercy, not often to the arrogant"

- Line 15-17, speaker turns from third person into second person

- Line 18, "I'd sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk

- Line 22-25, Tried to restore health of the hawk but the hawk’s fate was to die

- Last stanza, speaker is ashamed and shows remorse, but does not feel guilt

- Born on January 10, 1887 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

- Was a child prodigy, entering University of Western Pennsylvania as a sophomore

- He married Una Kuster in 1913, upon her divorce from her first husband

- He is an icon in the environmental movement, nature is a major influence on his poems

- He built his own house where he would write most of his poems

- From 1920s to 1930s was the height of Jeffers' popularity

- Hurt Haws was published in 1928

- He passed away on January 20, 1962

Literary Devices

LIterary Devices

“He wandered over the foreland hill and returned in the evening, asking for death” (Part 2, Line 6)

Hurt Hawks

By: Robinson Jeffers

Separation of the Poem

Inhumanism

“Soared: the fierce rush: the night-herons by the flooded river cried fear as its rising” (Part 2, Line 11)

“What fell was relaxed. Owl-downy, soft feminine feathers; but what” (Part 2, Line 10)

-Personification: giving the hawk human characteristic of being able to ask

-Personification: Giving the river the human characteristic of crying

-Alliteration: By the author putting the words feminine and feathers together he created an alliteration because both words start with the letter f

-Conveys imagery and stresses timing

- the poem is divided into two parts which was based on a series of 2 events

- the first part was actually a poem on its own before the second part was written, named "The Hurt Hawk"

- First part reflects an injured hawk from a third-person's view

-Was written after Jeffers witnessed a injured hawk

- Part 2 was written after Jeffers shot a hawk

- May not be speaker

- Jeffers surrounded himself with nature at a young age

- Often in his poems he would have the concept of inhumanism

-Inhumanism is the shifting from man to not-man

Diction

“the intrepid readiness, the terrible eyes” (Part 1, Line 12)

“Before it was quite unsheathed from reality.” (Part 2, Line 12)

Intrepid: fearless or adventurous

Unsheathed: unprotected or without covering