The Hawk and Mr. Crowley

"Hawk Roosting" by Ted Hughes is a contrast in modern style when compared to the poem by Aleister Crowley, "The Hawk and the Babe." Hughes' poem is more direct, like the flight of the hawk, and shows a more modern approach to the subject of his poem and it's reference to humanity.

Although the poem by Crowley depicts the imagery and nature of the hawk, the language is more ornate and ornamental, of an older, romantic style. His language identifies him with the gold and turquoise of Heaven as seen in his studies of ancient Egyptian religion. Welcome to the magical world of Aleister Crowley.


The Hawk and the Babe by Aleister Crowley
[Dedicated to Raymond Radclyffe]

I am that hawk of gold
Proud in adamantine poise
On the pillars of torqoise,
See,beyond the starry fold,
Where a darkling orb is rolled.

There, beneath a grove of yew,
Plays a babe. Should I despise
Such a foam of gold, and eyes
Burning beryline, so blue
That the sun seems peeping through?

Did I swwop, were Heaven amazed?
With my beak I strike but once;
Out there leap a million suns.
Through the universe that blazed
Screams theit light, and death is dazed.

In my womb the babe may leap;
Seek him not within my eye!
Nor demand thou of me why
I should plunge from crystal steep
Like a plummet to the deep!

See yon solitary star!
What a world of blackness wraps
Round it! Unimagined gaps!
Let it be! Content thy car
With the voyage to things that are!

Nor, an thou perchance behold
How I plunge and batten on
Earth's exentrate carrion,
Deem torquoise match midden-mould
Or deny the Hawk of Gold!