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To the Evening Star Summary & Analysis
by William Blake

To the Evening Star Summary & Analysis
by William Blake

  • Intro
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line
    Explanations
  • Symbols
  • Poetic
    Devices
  • Vocabulary &
    References
  • Form, Meter, &
    Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
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The Full Text of “To the Evening Star”

1Thou fair-hair'd angel of the evening,

2Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light

3Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown

4Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!

5Smile on our loves; and, while thou drawest the

6Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew

7On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes

8In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on

9The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,

10And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,

11Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,

12And the lion glares thro' the dun forest:

13The fleeces of our flocks are cover'd with

14Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence.

  • “To the Evening Star” Introduction

    • "To the Evening Star," an early poem by William Blake, first appeared in his 1783 collection Poetical Sketches. In this short and deceptively simple poem, a speaker prays to the personified "evening star" (the planet Venus) for protection and guidance. While the star is in the sky, the world is full of peace, calm, and love—but when she withdraws, lions and wolves roam free. Without heavenly light, the poem suggests, the world becomes a dark and perilous place.

  • “To the Evening Star” Summary

    • Oh, pale-haired angel of twilight! Now that the sun has sunk low enough to touch the mountaintops, light your beacon of love; put on your shining crown, and smile down on us as we go to bed. Smile on us as we make love. And, as you draw the sky's blue bedcurtains, sprinkle silvery dew on all the flowers as they go to sleep. Allow your servant, the west wind, to come to a rest on the waters of the lake; with a glance of your shining eyes, decree that all should be silent, and fill the darkening air with silvery light. All too soon, you'll disappear—and then, wolves will roam free, and lions' eyes will gleam menacingly in the dark forest. Our sheep's wool is beaded with your silvery dew: please keep our flocks safe with your gentle power.

  • “To the Evening Star” Themes

    • Theme Innocence and Divine Protection

      Innocence and Divine Protection

      In “To the Evening Star,” the speaker calls on the divine to protect the world against all the perils of the dark. Praying to the “evening star”—that is, Venus, here personified as the love goddess for whom that planet was named—the speaker asks her not just to beautify the twilight landscape, but to hold the night’s prowling wolves at bay. By contrasting a sleepy bedtime world of innocent “love” and “silver dew” with the dreadful “glare” of predators, the poem suggests that peace and happiness need divine protection from the world’s darker, more dangerous forces.

      When the “evening star” appears in the heavens, the speaker feels, she heralds a time of blissful peace and innocent pleasure. Her “bright torch of love” benevolently illuminates everyone’s “evening bed,” and she “smile[s] on our loves,” blessing humanity’s bedtime snuggling (and presumably their other loving nocturnal activities—sex, for instance). This celestial "angel" makes the whole world peaceful, calm, and happy.

      When the divine star fades from the sky, though, the world looks very different. No sooner has the goddess “withdraw[n],” the speaker warns, than the “wolf rages” and the “lion glares”: that is, the world’s toothier forces come out to play. Threatening the “flocks” (that is, the sheep, common symbols of innocence and purity), these predatory animals might symbolize humanity’s less innocent impulses and appetites—representing, for instance, beastly lust instead of sacred love, or bloodthirstiness instead of peace.

      The difference between a world of holy, peaceful love and a world of animalistic bloodshed, then, is the presence of a sacred light. The speaker’s prayer that the evening star will “protect” the world suggests that, without divine guidance, the wolves and lions of greed, cruelty, and lust might well run wild.

    • Theme The Beauty and Danger of Nature

      The Beauty and Danger of Nature

      In “To the Evening Star,” the natural world is as lovely and gentle as it is perilous and wild. As night falls, the poem’s speaker addresses the “evening star”—that is, the planet Venus, the first “star” to appear in the night sky at dusk—as a gentle, protective goddess putting the world to bed. When she leaves the sky, though, ravenous animals prowl the landscape and menace the livestock. Nature, in this poem, is at once beautiful and threatening—but either way, it’s full of wonder.

      The sight of the “evening star” fills this poem’s speaker with love, gratitude, and awe. Addressing the star as a kind of goddess, the speaker prays that she’ll bring the day to a safe close, “draw[ing] the / Blue curtains of the sky” as if she were tucking the world into bed and “wash[ing] the dusk with silver,” casting soft light into the darkness. The speaker’s wonder-struck description of the landscape gently touched by starlight suggests that the natural world can be so beautiful that it feels actively loving and benevolent.

      However, nature also presents its dangers in the poem. When the evening star finishes her gentle bedtime rituals and fades from the sky, the speaker warns, wild animals go on the prowl: “the wolf rages” and “the lion glares.” All those roaming carnivores threaten the speaker’s “flocks” of sheep, endangering the very creatures whose “fleece” was only moments ago beautified by the “sacred dew” the star scattered over the landscape. Nature isn’t just a place of sparkling light and gentle benevolence, then: it’s also full of blood and guts.

      Praying to nature’s kindly face for protection from its bitey one, then, the speaker suggests that the natural world is both beautiful and dangerous—and that, either way, it has a mysterious power that goes far beyond human limits.

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “To the Evening Star”

    • Lines 1-5

      Thou fair-hair'd angel of the evening,
      Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light
      Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown
      Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!
      Smile on our loves;

      "To the Evening Star" begins with a rapturous apostrophe to a personified star-turned-goddess. As the "sun rests on the mountains" and the day comes to an end, the speaker begs the "fair-hair'd angel of the evening" to light her "bright torch of love," don her "radiant crown," and offer her blessing to everyone getting ready to go to their "evening bed."

      The speaker's metaphors of "torch" and "crown" paint a picture both of a real star's glinting light (which might indeed suggest the sharp points of a tiara or the fiery brightness of a torch) and a goddess decked out in her queenly regalia. If this is the "evening star"—another name for the planet Venus, the first "star" to appear in the sunset sky—then perhaps this "angel" has something in common with Venus herself, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and sex.

      In a moment of reverent anaphora, the speaker provides another hint that this goddess might preside over sacred love:

      [...] smile upon our evening bed!
      Smile on our loves; [...]

      The speaker's prayer that this "angel" will "smile" on both beds and love suggests that she offers a blessing to lovers in particular.

      In these first lines, then, the poem paints a picture of a world making its gentle way toward sex and sleep. The "evening star" hangs over it all, a protective, regal force who smiles on everything that happens beneath her.

      These images of peace and balance, though, are a little at odds with the poem's form:

      • At first glance, readers might expect this poem to be a sonnet: it's 14 lines long, and seems to be written in iambic pentameter (that is, lines of five iambs, metrical feet with a da-DUM rhythm: "Put on, | and smile | upon | our eve- | ning bed!").
      • But there's no sonnet rhyme scheme here. Even more disorientingly, what seems at first to be blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) will soon veer off course into all sorts of unexpected rhythms.

      As readers will soon see, this tension between order and unpredictability will turn up in the poem's world, not just its form.

    • Lines 5-8

      and, while thou drawest the
      Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew
      On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes
      In timely sleep.

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    • Lines 8-10

      Let thy west wind sleep on
      The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,
      And wash the dusk with silver.

    • Lines 10-12

      Soon, full soon,
      Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,
      And the lion glares thro' the dun forest:

    • Lines 13-14

      The fleeces of our flocks are cover'd with
      Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence.

  • “To the Evening Star” Symbols

    • Symbol Predatory Animals

      Predatory Animals

      The poem's dreadful "lion" and "wolf" can be read as symbols of humankind's dangerous instincts and urges.

      When the poem's "star" fades from the sky, predatory animals come out of hiding and menace the speaker's "flocks" of sheep (themselves a common symbol of innocence). The roving lion and wolf thus suggest greed, lust, and violence—as opposed to the sacred world of love and peace that the star rules over. Without the protection and guidance of heaven, the poem suggests, humanity's animal nature might run wild.

  • “To the Evening Star” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Personification

      Personification transforms this poem's nighttime countryside into a magical, spirit-haunted landscape.

      The central moment of personification here turns the "evening star" (that is, the planet Venus, the first light to show up in the sky at sunset) into a goddess. Of course, Venus was already a goddess—the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and sex—and a number of the images the speaker uses here allude to that mythology. This "fair-hair'd angel" carries a "bright torch of love," and she "smile[s] on our loves" and "our evening bed" for good measure. Besides putting the world to sleep with her "glimmering eyes" and her scatterings of "silver dew," then, the personified evening star also seems to quietly preside over a world of sacred love and sex.

      The world around her is personified, too. The "west wind," for instance, can "sleep on / The lake," and the "flowers" can close their "sweet eyes" as the dew falls on them. By imbuing winds and flowers with personalities, the poem suggests that the whole natural world is full of sacred life and energy (a very Blakean idea: he would later write that "everything that lives is Holy"). It also makes the poem's picture of the whole world going to sleep feel that much dreamier.

    • Apostrophe

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    • Imagery

    • Juxtaposition

    • Metaphor

    • Alliteration

  • “To the Evening Star” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Thou, Thy, Thine
    • Radiant
    • Timely
    • Full
    • Dost
    • Wide
    • Thro'
    • Dun
    Thou, Thy, Thine

    • These are all old-fashioned ways of saying "you" (thou) or "your" (thy, thine).

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “To the Evening Star”

    • Form

      "To the Evening Star" is written in a single stanza of 14 lines, like a sonnet—though it isn't one. While the poem uses some sonnet conventions, like iambic pentameter (lines with five da-DUM feet: "And wash | the dusk | with sil- | ver. Soon, | full soon"), it also breaks from those conventions in important ways. Its meter doesn't stay steady, and it's written in unrhymed blank verse.

      Like a lot of Blake's works, then, this poem is deceptively simple. What looks like a gentle sonnet at first glance ends up being a roving, wild creation of Blake's own design—just as what looks like a blissfully peaceful starry night transforms into a jungle full of wolves and lions.

    • Meter

      "To the Evening Star" is written blank verse—mostly. Setting out in this conventional form, the poem soon wanders far beyond its metrical boundaries.

      First off, an explanation of the rules the poem will break! Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. That is, every line is built from five iambs, metrical feet with a da-DUM rhythm. Here's how that sounds in line 10:

      And wash | the dusk | with sil- | ver. Soon, | full soon

      One reason that poets choose this meter is its flexibility. A lot of spoken English falls naturally into an iambic rhythm, and there's also plenty of room to vary the meter a little while keeping to the basic five-beat pace. But this poem takes so many liberties with its blank verse that it sometimes falls out of pentameter altogether. Listen to what happens in line 12, for instance:

      And the li- | on glares | thro' the dun | forest:

      Not only has this line lost one of its five beats, switching to tetrameter (only four strong stresses), it throws in some anapests (feet with a da-da-DUM rhythm) and a trochee (DUM-da) for good measure. The overall effect is as wild, roving, and unpredictable as the glaring lion these words describe.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      This blank verse poem doesn't use a rhyme scheme. The poem's lack of rhyme (and the impressionistic, free-flowing, often surprising meter) makes it feel gentle and conversational: the speaker's address to the "fair-hair'd angel of the evening" sounds more like a quiet greeting to an old friend than a hymn to a mighty deity.

  • “To the Evening Star” Speaker

    • The poem's speaker is more a watchful, worshipful eye than a distinct character. Addressing the personified "evening star," this speaker marvels at her gentle beauty and begs her to watch over the sleepy landscape below, painting a picture of the world slowing down beneath the "blue curtains of the sky." But this speaker also has a sense of danger. Without the star's protection, the speaker nervously observes, the "wolf rages wide" and the "lion glares."

      This vision of benevolent stars and dreadful beasts suggests a very Romantic speaker: a person who believes that the natural world is full of mystery, as perilous as it is beautiful.

  • “To the Evening Star” Setting

    • "To the Evening Star" is set in an idyllic pastoral landscape—in other words, in an idealized countryside full of flowers, starlight, and sleeping sheep. This peaceful dreamland isn't without a nightmare side, though; when the evening star who watches over the world like a goddess fades from the sky, the "wolf rages wide" and the "lion glares" in the darkness.

      The combination of perfect beauty and slinking, predatory danger here makes this poem's world feel more like a dream than a picture of any real place. Like a lot of dreams, it's a revealing one. The juxtaposition of innocent "love" with wolfish "rage" suggests that the speaker worries about what happens when the divine "fair-hair'd angel" of love isn't around to keep people's darker and more selfish urges in check.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “To the Evening Star”

      Literary Context

      William Blake (1757-1827) was a poet unlike any other. Often considered one of the earliest of the English Romantics, he also stands apart from any movement as a unique philosopher, prophet, and artist.

      Blake didn't just write poetry: he also designed, engraved, printed, painted, and published illuminated manuscripts using a technique he called the "infernal method." Blake painted his poems and pictures on copper plates with a resilient ink, then burned away the excess copper in a bath of acid—the opposite of the process most engravers used. But Blake often did the opposite of what other people did, believing that it was his role to "reveal the infinite that was hid" by custom and falsehood.

      Even among the often countercultural Romantics, then, Blake was an outlier. Samuel Taylor Coleridge himself—no stranger to a wild vision—once remarked that he was "in the very mire of common-place common-sense compared with Mr. Blake."

      "To the Evening Star," however, appears in one of Blake's more conventional works: his very first collection of poetry, Poetical Sketches (1783). Poetical Sketches was never widely published; Blake only printed a handful of copies to share with friends. Its poems, while not as innovative as Blake's mature works, open a window on his early interests, his inspirations, and his artistic development.

      While Blake was never widely known during his lifetime, he has become one of the most famous and beloved of poets since his death, and writers from Allen Ginsberg to Olga Tokarczuk to Philip Pullman claim him as a major influence.

      Historical Context

      "To the Evening Star," with its dreamy vision of a star coming to life as the goddess Venus, fits right in with a very Romantic fondness for old myths—and for a vision of the natural world as a transcendent, beautiful, and mysterious place. Many Romantic poets and philosophers believed that nature could, in the words of Wordsworth, teach people more "than all the sages can."

      This idea was in part a reaction to the Enlightenment, an 18th-century period of scientific and philosophical advancement. The Enlightenment valued order and reason; for instance, this was the period in which the scientist Carl Linnaeus developed a formal taxonomy for classifying plants and animals.

      That kind of razor-sharp clarity was all well and good, the Romantics felt, but too much of it and one risked missing out on mystery and humility. The vastness and power of nature, in their eyes, had a way of putting people in their right place, reminding them that they didn't know everything and couldn't control everything.

      The Romantic love of nature was also spurred by the Industrial Revolution, which was gathering steam (literally!) when Blake wrote this poem in the late 18th century. An increasingly mechanized and factory-driven society made thinkers like Blake worry that people were losing touch with their place in the natural order—and thus with their humanity.

  • More “To the Evening Star” Resources

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