“Evening Hawk” – Robert Penn Warren 1905-1989

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.

Why I have been thinking of this poem?

I used this poem in my AP Literature classes to help teach students how to look for literary devices, meaning, sounds, all the poetic things. Using the acronym TPCASTT – probably something that the teacher, John Keating (Dead Poet’s Society), would shudder at, but it helped students understand poetry. 

T means Title
P means Paraphrase
C means Connotation
A means Attitude
S means Shifts
T means Title
T means Theme

I remember being in a department meeting and one of my fellow teachers said she never taught poetry because she didn’t like it! I couldn’t understand being an English teacher and not liking poetry. 

Some of the reasons I like this poem is because it really does take several readings and several close readings to understand some of the deeper themes and what the poet is arguing. 

Wings dipping through
Geometries and orchids that the sunset builds

Some of the geometrics – mountains, gorges, peaks, hieroglyphics, the axis. I can just visualize the hawk flying over these with his beautiful wingspan. A hawk’s wingspan can be up to 4 feet across and create a large shadow. 

Dips, builds, riding, tumultuous avalanche, scythes does, his motion, climbing, swings into shadow, cruises, grind, drip, leaking 

All the kinesthetic verbs he uses. When you read it out loud, you feel like you are soaring with the hawk.  The auditory and visuals presented:

Guttural gorge, scythes down, honed steel-edge, crashless, earth grind, drip in darkness

The dichotomy of the light and the dark imagery.

Light to plane, sunset, back angularity of shadow, light above pines, He is climbing the last light, swings into shadow. 

Alliteration

Guttural gorge, last light, swings into shadow, the last thrush, cruises in his sharp hieroglyphics, The star is steady, drip in darkness, leaking pipe in the cellar. 

Whose wisdom is the speaker talking about? What error is the speaker talking about? Is the speaker referring to Plato’s “Allegory of The Cave”? Or “The Metaphor of the Sun”? If you are unfamiliar then here is a short version. If you were chained in a cave and facing the wall, you would see images as shadows that go back and forth all day created by the people who walk by and a fire behind you. If you were suddenly released and let out of the world would you wish to return to the cave because it is familiar to you? Or would you finally realize that in the light, that is how the world truly is? If you went back and told others in the cave, they most likely would not believe you. The reality of light would not be something they could grasp. So back to the wisdom – his wisdom – the hawks? Is he like a God who sees all? His wisdom is ancient, too, and immense. So immense that we cannot comprehend it. 

The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error. The star
Is steady, like Plato, over the mountain.

What a beautiful and though provoking poem by Robert Penn Warren.