Summary

The poem begins with an unnamed speaker describing a hawk’s broken wing that trails on the ground beside it. The image is forlorn, with the broken wing a “banner in defeat” (2). The hawk has now been confined to the ground and can no longer fly, wandering around in hunger. No other animals are willing to approach the hawk even to attack because the hawk still has full use of his talons. Neither “cat nor coyote / will shorten the week of waiting for death” (4-5). Throughout the first stanza, the hawk is in a constant waiting period, remembering each night in his dreams how it felt to fly high above. Each morning when he wakes, the dawn ruins his illusions of freedom. The speaker notes the hawk’s pride, even arrogance, that he will not beg the man taking care of him for death...