A hawk is pretty much the poster child for freedom. Oh, to be able to soar high above mere earthlings, effortlessly shifting direction with a flick of your flighty feathers. After knowing that kind of feeling, just imagine how it would feel to be grounded… permanently. Injuries to wild animals signal the worst kind of confinement. They spell the end with a capital E.
Jeffers uses the two "Hurt Hawks" as an occasion to talk about the freedom of spirit trapped within the material of the body and kept down by some idea of community. According to the speaker, one of freedom's most important qualities is independence, and you can have that only when the strong spirit is united with a strong, whole body.
Questions About Freedom and Confinement
- Can a human ever be as free as an animal? Why or why not?
- How do the concepts of salvation, redemption, and freedom relate in this poem? That sure is a lot of abstraction in a poem that promises to be about hawks. What connections can you make between these ideas?
- What is it about living with other people in a community that conflicts with freedom, at least, according to Jeffers?
Chew on This
To Jeffers, freedom is the ultimate human value. Not even community responsibility can trump it.
In the end, according to Jeffers, the only thing that can really end our freedom is our bodies finally crapping out.