The Hawk in the Rain
I drown in the drumming ploughland, I drag up Heel after heel from the swallowing of the earth’s mouth, From clay that clutches my each step to the ankle With the habit of the dogged grave, but the hawk Effortlessly at height hangs his still eye. His wings hold all creation in a weightless quiet, Steady as a hallucination in the streaming air. While banging wind kills these stubborn hedges, Thumbs my eyes, throws my breath, tackles my heart, And rain hacks my head to the bone, the hawk hangs The diamond point of will that polestars The sea drowner’s endurance: and I, Bloodily grabbed dazed last-moment-counting Morsel in the earth’s mouth, strain towards the master- Fulcrum of violence where the hawk hangs still, That maybe in his own time meets the weather Coming from the wrong way, suffers the air, hurled upside down, Fall from his eye, the ponderous shires crash on him, The horizon traps him; the round angelic eye Smashed, mix his heart’s blood with the mire of the land.
The Hawk in the Rain - meaning Summary
Endurance Beneath the Storm
The poem contrasts a speaker struggling through mud, wind, and rain with a hawk that appears perfectly motionless above the landscape. The bird becomes an image of focused will and endurance, offering the speaker a point to strive toward. Yet the ending imagines the hawk’s own vulnerability: its mastery may depend on perspective, and it too can be overwhelmed by hostile forces.
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