To the Evening Star

The poem ‘To the Evening Star’ addressed to the superficial body after sunset. Indeed the poem is an ‘ode‘to an evening star that has the resemblance on planet Venus which goes around in the second orbit of the solar system. In this poem, Blake shows a shepherd boy superstitiously supplicating the evening star to protect him and his sheep in the night. At the beginning, he uses the pronoun that denotes the second person ‘Thou’ gives an intimacy between the speaker and the star. Then he conveys the beauty of the evening star that is seen as one solitary star before the moon or other stars mark their presence.

“THOU fair-hair’d angel of the evening,
Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light”

The adjective ‘fair-hair’d’ is to the star itself. He shows her as the goddess of the beauty. Blake describes in a very elegant way, how lovely the star is. It is a bright torch while all else is dark. In reality, it is the planet Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. So the poet calls upon the Venus as the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. In this way, the poet takes the reader through the idea that the evening star is beautiful. The poem is in sonnet form and Blake describes the capacity of her throughout the poem. This angel rekindles the shining torch of love and wears a radiant crown. He requests her to bless the resting bed of all the people. The bed is metaphorically compared to the earth.

“…………………………… thy radiant crown
Put on, and smile upon our evening bed”

It shows the political entrapment in the atmosphere of poet style. He knows it that is during the night when the star’s “radiant crown” holds the power to put an end to all of the daytimes’ rules. Such as change the color of the sky, put the flowers to sleep and calm the wind. He also says that she has the power to remove darkness and can put on glowing crown and smile upon the evening bed of humankind.

Further, the poet indirectly says that her torch is gentle and he cools and beautifies the earth. This goddess enables the fine morning and scatters the silver dew on every flower that shuts its silver eyes having timely sleep. Finally, this evening star is looked upon a power that protects all the creatures on the earth. The poet maintains the situation by showing the wolf rages and the lion glares at night in darkness which are the emblems of Evils. ,

“Dost thou withdraws; then the wolf rages wide
And then the lion glares through the dun forest”

He seems to be scared as it would hide under the clouds. Therefore, he requests to protect all the human beings against all the Evils on the earth. He begs to cover all by its sacred dew as done by warm clothes. The dew that falls on the evening is also likened to holy water that protects men from Evils. By this poet seems to go beyond the pageant beliefs and associate the evening star with heaven.