This document provides an analysis of the poem "To the Evening Star" by William Blake. It discusses how the poem uses imagery and figurative language techniques like personification, symbolism, and kinesthetic imagery. Key elements like the fair-haired angel representing evening, flowers shutting their eyes, and the wolf and lion symbolizing night and morning are analyzed. The conclusion states the poem explores themes of pastoral simplicity and political entrapment through its imagery and appeal to the evening star for protection.

1. ANALYSIS OF POEM
By Atikah Rahmawati
“TO THE EVENING STAR”

2. Abstract
In this paper, the writer try to analyze a poem,
entitled “To the Eveningn Star” written by William
Blake. The purpose of this writing is to appreciate
and to analyze the using of personification,
symbolism, and kinestetic imagery on the poem.
To analyze the poem, the writer uses imagery and
figurative language theories. From analyzing the
poem, the writer wants to share the expression
from the poem. It can be concluded that imagery
and figurative language are the main role of the
poem.
Keyword: William Blake, Imagery, Figurative Language

3. Introduction
According to Charles Mills Gayley and Clement C.
Young in their book Introduction to The Principles and
Progress of English Poetry (1904:43), poetry is “the
imaginative and emotive expression or suggestion of that
which has significance, in the rhythmical and preferably
metrical medium of language appropriate to the subject.”.
From those explanation, the writer conclude that
poetry is a literary work that can be understood if
readers read it with their sense of feeling which will
bring the readers to their imaginative world. The
writer uses the poem To The Evening Star by William
Blake to be analyzed.

4. Theory
Imagery
There are seven kinds of imagery, they are: visual (something seen in the
mind’s eye), olfactory (smell), tactile (touch), auditory (hearing),
gustatory (taste), organic (internal sensation), and
kinesthetic (movement and tension). From the seven kinds of imagery
that are mentioned above, the writer will only discuss two of them; they
are visual, kinesthetic imagery.
- Visual Imagery
Visual imagery is a picture which is caught by the sense of the sight.
- Kinesthetic Imagery
Kinesthetic imagery is described by the form of movement or activities
happened in the body.
Figurative Language
- Personification
Personification is a subtype of figurative language which give the
attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or an idea
- Symbolism
In his book, Perrine explains that “a symbol may be roughly defined as
something that means more than what it is”. Symbolism is an idea of a word
itself; it could mean differently from one person to another.

5. Biography and Poetry
William Blake was born on 28th November 1757 in Soho in
London, where he spent most of his life. Blake was an
English poet, painter, and printmaker. As a young boy,
Blake recalls having a most revealing vision of seeing angels
in the trees. These mystical visions returned throughout his
life, leaving a profound mark on his poetry and outlook.
William Blake was also particularly sensitive to cruelty. But
as well as writing poetry that revealed and exposed the
harsh realities of life, William Blake never lost touch with
his heavenly visions. William Blake died on August 12
1827. He was buried in an unmarked grave in a public
cemetery and Bunhill Fields. After his death his influence
steadily grew through the Pre-Raphaelites and later noted
poets such as T. S. Eliot and W. B. Yeats.

6. To The Evening Star
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, 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. Let thy west wind sleep on
The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,
And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,
Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,
And the lion glares thro’ the dun forest:
The fleeces of our flocks are cover’d with
Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence

7. Paraphrase
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, 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. Let
thy west wind sleep on the lake. Speak silence with thy
glimmering eyes, and wash the dusk with silver. Soon,
full soon, dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,
and the lion glares thro’ the dun forest. The fleeces of
our flocks are cover’d with thy sacred dew: protect them
with thine influence.

8. Discussion
Visual Imagery
Thou fair-hair’d angel of the evening,
Fair-hair’d is a visual imagery because we can determine the colour
by our sight that the hair is fair by the sunlight of the evening.
Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light
Light as we can see how the sun shines while rests on the mountain.
Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown
When it said bright torch of love, we can imagine that there is a light
of love on the torch, that the torch is not extinguished. While radiant
crown shows that the crown is super bright, we can assume it is
crown of the sun or even gold crown so that it is radiant.
Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew
When we read blue curtains of the sky, our mind will fly away to the
sky and see a blue bright sky without clouds so that it looks like a
blue curtains of the sky. While we might assume that dew has no
color, but then in this poem it says that the dew is silver.

9. The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,
How we can imagine glimmering eyes? It may be when the eyes
teary and light aglow the eyes, it will looks like glimmering eyes
Kinesthetic Imagery
Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!
Smile on our loves, and while thou drawest the
Put on and smile are kinesthetic imagery. Put on, as if we know the
movement and also smile that needs movement to curve the lips.
On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes
Shut is kinesthetic imagery. By closing eyes, it needs movement of
some muscles around the eyes.
And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,
Wash is also kinesthetic imagery. Washing needs to move hands
and finger.

10. Personification
Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light
Sun rests is personification because the word rest unusually uses
by things, rest usually uses by person. But in this line it can be
understood that the sun rests is when the sun goes down and the
mountain covers the sun.
On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes.
Flowers do not have eyes so they cannot shut their eyes which is
normally people do.
The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,
Lake cannot speak, but this is personification. The glimmering of
the lake shows the beauty in the silence.
Symbolism
Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,
The wolf is symbol for the night; it has a grey fur, and has an
affinity with the dark, the night.
And the lion glares thro’ the dun forest:
The lion, with golden fur, is a symbol for the glorious morning.
And the lion glares thro’ the dun forest means as much as the
morning breaks through.

11. The other figurative language can we find on this poem is
metaphor. In “To the Evening Star”, Blake maintains his Sketches
theme of the daily cycle as metaphor to innocence and
experience. Specifically here, the speaker calls upon the “fair-
hair’d angel of the evening” to protect him (all of us) against the
evils of the night, and more importantly, inspire “whilst the sun
rests” all that is oppressed during daytime.
The star represents the transcendent moments of struggle
between oppositions. It is a “bright torch” while all else is dark,
presenting a juxtaposition thus transcendent symbol. In reality,
the star is most likely the planet Venus, the Goddess of love and
beauty, and helps build Blake’s motif of eroticism and desires
that must remain hidden under the light of the omniscient day
(notice the bed is “our” and not “mine” indicating it is a shared
domain).

12. Conclusion
There are three major considerations to be taken from
“The Evening Star.” One is the theme of pastoral
simplicity. It is in the last two lines that the speaker
appeals to God, recognizing his inferiority and potential
impotence when it comes to protecting his flock from the
fall of grace. The second is political entrapment. Again,
the speaker knows that it is during night, when Venus’s
“radiant crown” holds the power to put an end to all of
daytime’s rules (change the color of the sky, put the
flowers to sleep, calm the wind). Alas, the excitement and
bliss of the unencumbered will “soon withdraw,” and
just as in man’s law-abiding society, the force of
opposition governs all of Blake’s inhibitions. Knowing an
appeal to reason, religion, and God is out of the question;
he turns to nighttime’s nature queen in hopes for
approval.