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H Is For Hawk Summary

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In lines 11-31 of H is for Hawk, Macdonald describes the first time she saw the hawk which she later would want to own. This autobiographical piece, set soon after the death of Macdonald’s father, vividly describes the moment she met the hawk and clearly explains her feelings about the hawk, focusing on the moment she met the hawk.
In lines 12-13, Macdonald says The air turned syrupy, slow, flecked with dust. This use of sibilance slows the pace of the paragraph down, giving the reader the feeling of time standing still. By using the words syrupy and slow Macdonald decelerates the paragraph because the two words are related to slowness and they have long vowel sounds. This slow-motion, lethargic moment makes the reader appreciates the magnitude of the moment, as well as …show more content…

The repetition of enormous, exaggerates how big the hawk is, as well as the enormity of the moment for her. It also shows how awestruck she is in that moment, because it makes the reader think that Macdonald can’t quite believe what she is seeing. A great flood of sunlight drenches us is pathetic fallacy, reflecting just how happy Macdonald is in this moment. The light symbolizes brilliance, and it shows her happiness. It also shows her hope for this new beginning, where she’s moving on from here father’s death by seeing this bird. This description glorifies the moment of the reveal, by giving us such a vivid description of the atmosphere. By using the antithesis brilliance and fury, she juxtaposes the two words, emphasizing both of them. This shows the mixed emotions that both her and the bird are feeling, because everything is brilliance and fury. It also links them as one, and along with the use of the word us, the reader can see a real connection between the Macdonald and the

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Just like when they are sitting down by the river and Frank shoots one. She begins to realize how the birds can correlate to love. And how love can go from the highest highs to the lowest lows. Just like when the bird got up and was flying and then was suddenly shot down. At this point it made Emil and Alexandra realize the pure joy of the duck and the respect they need to have for the bird.

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In his pom entitled “Evening Hawk”, Robert Penn Warren characterizes human nature by a transition between the flight of the hawk during the day and that of the bat, or the “Evening Hawk” during the night. The hawk, as it soars in daylight, portrays how humans appear in clear light of their peers, while the bat, cruising the night sky, symbolizes what humans hide within themselves. Warren effectively expresses the meaning of this poem and its serious mood by the use of diction and imagery to appeal to the reader’s perception of sight and sound. Throughout the first part of the poem, Warren describes the journey of the hawk in the daytime to symbolize how one’s character may seem to other beings.

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