Allow me to include a brief author's note before my essay (however, nothing is really brief when I say/write it). Whilst writing my first essay, I felt quite confident in my poetry-essay writing and my arguments. I wrote it sitting outside on this lovely day. I posted it. I took a break. I chose this essay a few hours later. I ended up hating the prompt and not being fond of the poem after reading it a million times. I couldn't bear to start over with a new prompt after all I had done trying to figure this one out (an essentially straightforward prompt, really). This essay is not great-- I say that not as defense, nor as an excuse, but...more like a warning. I've been feeling pretty good about my poetry reading and writing this past week or so, but for some reason, this one is giving me problems (even though the prompt itself isn't hard). So. Blah, blah, blah, I apologize ahead of time to anyone that may be offended by my less-than stellar performance. There are parts that I left unfinished, so if anyone has ideas, I welcome them. On a lighter note, I just learned that iguanas have a third eye. Cool.
"Evening Hawk" by Robert Penn Warren
From
plane of light to plane, wings dipping through
Geometries
and orchids that the sunset builds,
Out
of the peak's black angularity of shadow, riding
The
last tumultuous avalanche of
Light
above pines and the guttural gorge,
The
hawk comes.
His wing
Scythes
down another day, his motion
Is
that of the honed steel-edge, we hear
The
crashless fall of stalks of Time.
The
head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error.
Look! Look!
he is climbing the last light
Who
knows neither Time nor error, and under
Whose
eye, unforgiving, the world, unforgiven, swings
Into
shadow.
Long now,
The
last thrush is still, the last bat
Now
cruises in his sharp hieroglyphics. His
wisdom
Is
ancient, too, and immense. The star
Is
steady, like Plato, over the mountain.
If
there were no wind we might, we think, hear
The
earth grind on its axis, or history
Drip
in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar.
2006 Poem “Evening Hawk” (Robert Penn Warren)
Prompt: Read
the following poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in
which you analyze how the poet uses language to describe the scene and
to convey mood and meaning.
Robert Penn Warren’s poem, “Evening Hawk,” relies heavily on
imagery and description to convey the mood and meaning of the work. The
language and techniques—i.e., imagery, metaphor, simile, diction—employed in
this piece thoroughly describe the scene. Warren’s choice of highly symbolic and
descriptive words, inclusion of metaphors and similes, and abundant visuals
also enhance the conveyance of the poem’s significance.
Imagery, as mentioned above, is easily
the most conspicuous and important vessel for mood and meaning in “Evening
Hawk.” The visual imagery that Warren includes sets the scene: a hawk is
gliding through the evening in a very natural setting, as the sun sets on the
world. The imagery is also layered; many of the visuals are symbolic of
something relating to the passage of time, human nature/error, and history.
The hawk itself appears to be a metaphor;
perhaps representing time or the evening itself. This extended metaphor runs
alongside quite a few other metaphors in the poem. The passage of time is a
major part of this poem’s significance, and metaphors such as the hawk’s wing
being a scythe that cuts down the day communicate this quite effectively. Similes,
like metaphors, are used as very visual comparisons in this poem. For example,
in the last stanza, the speaker states, “we might,…hear…history Drip in
darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar.” The poem compares the abstract
elements of the poem (namely the passage of time) to more familiar ideas (the
hawk, a scythe, a leaky pipe) via its metaphors and similes. By doing this, one can not only easier fathom
such intangible things, but also gather deeper meaning as s/he relates
something such as time to a tangible, symbolic object.
Warren’s diction in the poem is
intelligent, and he chooses words that are highly symbolic. The word choice reinforces
the fact that the body of the poem is imagery-laden. The first stanza establishes
the setting: “dipping through Geometries and orchids that the sunset builds, Out
of the peak's black angularity of shadow, riding The last tumultuous avalanche
of Light above pines and the guttural gorge…” The third stanza also establishes
the philosophical, meditative mood of the poem (“…he is climbing the last light
Who knows neither Time nor error, and under Whose eye, unforgiving, the world,
unforgiven, swings Into shadow.”).
