Mary Oliver Poem 3 - Hawk

            Mary Oliver Poem 3 – Hawk

In Owls and Other Fantasies, page 20, Mary Oliver explores the majestic hawk in a morning in nature.  The hawk perches carefully on a pine tree, compared to “an admiral…distinguished with sideburns”.  Right from the start of the poem, Oliver anthropomorphized this bird, and gave them qualities of something to be respected, and perhaps feared.  The narrator remarks to themselves that this hawk “is heaven’s fistful of death and destruction”, a reminder of not only the bird’s power, but of its awareness of its power, with the intent to use it for some purpose.

Every movement of the bird is taken into account, with the narrator noting when “the hawk hooked one exquisite foot onto a last twig to look deeper into the yellow reeds”, reminiscent of some sort of hunter.  The image that came to my mind in this moment was of a pirate at the top of a ship’s mast, taking out a spyglass and leaning forward slightly to get a good look at an incoming ship.

Oliver utilizes images that make me torn about how I should truly feel about the bird.  There are many moments anthropomorphizing the bird as a military man or as a hunter in the forest.  However, at the end of her writing, the hawk soars over to its prey and darts downwards like a “white blade”, making me think back to images of “heaven’s fist” and “the white lily of resurrection” and the hawk’s “golden feet”, all which seem to be an allusion to the beauty and brilliance of something divine, like an angel.  So then, what is this mighty bird, a human hunter, or an angel of great power?  

Perhaps there is no one right answer, and perhaps it is both!  I at least notice how throughout the writing that the hawk is an image of power, of elegance, of intent.  I humbly think of the hawk as something to be respected, to be awed by, in their graceful hunt.