The hawk has a slight oxymoronic value to itself aswell, as it says `My manners are tearing off heads`. This is oxymoronic as manners are associated with good things such as saying please and thank you. In this case, the oxymoronic bird thinks of manners in a totally different way. `Tearing off heads` is obviously a bad thing to do, but this hawk associates `tearing off heads` with `manners` when the two words totally contrast. This also again goes back to the point about the hawk being in charge of everything as it is `tearing off heads` and there is no one or nothing which will go in the hawk`s way, and try to prevent it from doing so. In this poem, Ted Hughes makes nature is brutal: it 'kills' and 'eats'. What's slightly disturbing is that the hawk views these as 'perfect' and 'rehearses them'. This almost gives the feel of a psychopath, yet he is only fulfilling his natural function. The repetition of 'hooked' from his head to his feet creates a feel of being captured, evoking his sharp, deadly beak and claws. These are the parts that the hawk emphasizes when he describes himself.
The hawk deals in 'death'. Ted Hughes uses the metaphor of the bird flying directly 'through the bones of the living'. The uneasy juxtaposition of bones with living creates an unsettling effect, and makes the bird seem almost supernaturally powerful: as if he exists beyond this one moment in time. The hawk lists natural features: 'sun', 'air' and the 'tree', which he thinks exist only in as much as they are of 'advantage to me'. He also says it took 'the whole of Creation' to produce his 'feather' and 'foot': the juxtaposition of something so huge and old, and biblical against a tiny foot/feather, shows how magnificent the bird thinks he is: as if he is the reason creation exists. This is interesting because it twists the traditional anthropocentric world view (i.
