Hawk Roosting and Golden Retrievals The egotistic voice of the narrator in “Hawk Roosting” and the lighthearted, playful narrator from “Golden Retrievals” have opposing ideas about how the world works and their specific place in it. Both authors use dialogue, tone, and style to portray the poem’s unique character, but in different ways. The two poems also are similar because they are both told from the perspective of an animal The hawk in “Hawk Roosting” believes he is in command of everyone and that the world is his to use. The poem uses sophisticated words to remind us of the hawk’s obvious intelligence, but also of his cockiness. He repeatedly talks about his vantage point and how it is an advantageous perspective. The hawk believes he is …show more content…
Along with the dog noticing everything that happens around him, we also get the sense that he thinks his owner does not know how to properly experience life: “And you? Either you’re sunk in the past, half our walk, thinking of what you never can bring back, or else you’re off in some fog concerning- tomorrow…”. This shows that the dog has a deeper knowledge than he originally lets on. Also, it tells us the golden retriever likes to enjoy the present, rather than dwelling on the past or thinking about what will happen in the future. The author of “Golden Retrievals” uses tone and dialogue to convey what the golden retriever is thinking about. In the beginning of the poem, the dog is easily distracted by: “Balls and sticks capture my attention/ seconds at a time”. This demonstrates his short attention span. Unlike the eagle, he views the world from the ground and because of this he finds everything exciting and vast: “muck, pond, ditch, residue/ of any thrillingly dead thing”. He doesn’t believe he is in control of everything, instead he views himself as an observer and participator in the world around