1. “Evening Hawk”
Robert Penn Warren

2. Stanza I - II
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 gutteral gorge, The hawk comes. His wing Scythes down another another day, his motion Is that of the honed steel-edge, we hear The crashless fail of stalks of Time. The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error.

3. Stanza I-II
Syntax
Use of commas to convey the gliding and swooping of the hawk
Creates graceful rhythm within the poem and the movements of the hawk
Cuts of suddenly in line 6 “His wing”

4. Stanza I-II Imagery /tone “The last tumultuous avalanche of
Light above pines and the putteral gorge, The Hawk comes”
Image of darkness and night approaching
The last light on earth before death – climax of the person’s life
Urgency

5. Stanza I- II Personification/ metaphor
The wing of the hawk = scythes bringing night?
Grimm Reaper
Bringing death?
“The crashless fall of stalks of Time”
Wing= scythe
“stalks of Time” = life
The unforeseen dives and slicing motion of wings represent the unforeseen nature of death.
Hawk is a symbol of the inescapability of time.

6. Stanza I-II Tone “Tumultuous avalanche”
“The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error.”
Urgent and heavy
Relates to the theme of death and passing of time
Hawk not restrained by material possessions

7. Stanza III
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

8. Stanza II Imagery/ diction Symbol “light” used repetitively throughout
Focus not on death, but last light on earth
“Shadow, unforgiving”
Power and last bit of light, not darkness
Symbol
Hawk as bringing the darkness of death
“unforgiving”
“Who knows neither Time nor error”

9. Stanza IV
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.

10. Stanza IV Juxtaposition of images
“The last thrush is still , the last bat”
Song bird verses nocturnal bird
The hawk descends into where the bats reign
The sunset the unforgiving hawk brings the dying day to its end

11. Stanza IV Simile “The star/ Is steady, like Plato, over the mountain”
Setting sun replaced by single bright star
Brings hope to those whom have departed from the light of day

12. Stanza IV Allusion Group of people chained in cave, facing the wall
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
“our nature in its education and want of education”
Group of people chained in cave, facing the wall
Watch shadows projected on wall as things pass by a fire behind them
It is all they know of reality
Theme of passing of time and humans not aware of it
The philosopher is able to go beyond the cave and discover true reality

13. Stanza IV
Metaphor
“The last bat” lives in darkenss – holds truth of night
“The coming Hawk” lives in daylight and dim of evening – holds power of day
Death consuming life

14. Stanza V
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.

15. Stanza V Failure of humans to realize we are losing time “our error”
The scythe of the hawk cuts down human errors of man and lets them fall away without mercy
Theme of death and passing of time