Hurt Hawks by Robinson Jeffers is a poem that for me evoked much emotion. The way he personifies the hawk, giving him a somewhat staunch personality, lends in a very effective way to the understanding of the animal’s reality. I read this poem with intention, my heart getting heavier after each line. Jeffers’ description is so realistic that I felt the misery and pain of the hawk, and by the end of the poem I too was “asking for [his] death” (23). There is something to be said for the imbedded concept of a fallen hero; the hawk is an elegant creature worthy of dignified reverence, and yet as he falls in grace he loses his strength and foregoes perseverance in favor of sweet relief.
My immediate reaction to this poem was one of awe and respect for the writer, because the way Jeffers was able to impart the woeful emotions of the object upon the reader was a very effective method in provoking captivation throughout the poem. I yearned, with the hawk, after the images of his past; a time where he used “the sky forever” at his whim, a time of “freedom” and strength (3-10). Despite the fact that I became emotionally invested and maintained a sense of empathy for the hawk, I am not angered or saddened by the narrative in which my hero begs for his own death. Jeffers imposes a certain sense of dignity in the hawk’s fate, and like the hero I wanted him to be, the hawk asked for death “not like a beggar,” rather, he went out with a preservation of his identity: grasping onto his “implacable arrogance,” refusing to change who he is in the face of his irrefutable demise. It is by this notion that I am able to hold this poem to a high esteem; because it so eloquently expresses the palpable emotion of defeat, yet it allows the subject of the fall to maintain his sense of self and personal reverence, a conclusion which is both bitter and sweet.