To the Evening Star

by William Blake

William Blake, the son of a draper from Westminster was born on 28th November, in
London. Two of his six siblings died in infancy. He was an imaginative child, different from
the beginning, so he was not sent to school, but educated at home. From early childhood,
Blake spoke of having visionsat four he saw God: at 10, he saw a tree filled with angels
when he was walking in the countryside. At the age of 11 Blake entered Pars Drawing
School in the Strand. Three years later he apprenticed to an engraver to the Royal Society
of Antiquaries.
One of his assignments as apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey,
exposing him to a variety of Gothic styles; a task which brought him to his lifelong love of
Gothic art. After his 7-year term ended, he studied briefly at the Royal Academy and
continued to support himself making engraved book illustrations. After marrying Catherine
Boucher; the illiterate (uneducated) daughter of a market gardener on 18th August 1782,
moved to Green Street, near Leicester Square. He taught her reading and writing and
draftsmanship and she later assisted him in creating his illuminated books. Blake's
marriage to Catherine remained a close and devoted one until his death. Blakes beloved
younger brother Robert, who had been living with them since 1784 died of tuberculosis.
Blake claimed that he had seen that his soul rise through the ceiling at death and the spirit
of Robert came to him in a vision in the night, and revealed the technique of combining text
and pictures on one engraved plate. This relief etching (engraving / drawing/ design)
allowed Blake to control all aspects of a book's production: he composed the verses,
designed the illustrations. He had produced the Songs of Innocence using this new method
in l789with the help of his wife. Blake wanted to take his poetry beyond being just words on
a page and felt they needed to be illustrated to create his desired effect.
In September 1800 (43 years old) he left London for Felpham, Sussex (about 50 miles
south west of London on the south coast), to live near William Haylay an eccentric (peculiar
/ strange ) poet who had written biographies of Milton and Cowper. Hayley also employed
Blake to decorate his library with eighteen heads of poets. While at Felpham he began work
on his epic poems, Milton & Jerusalem. In these poems Blake provides a complex
mixture of prophecy, social criticism and biblical legend.
He moved back to 17, South Moulton Street, near Tyburn (now Marble Arch) in 1803. He
had come to believe that only in London, could he carry on his visionary studies, and spent
his entire life in London Blake lived the last years of his life in obscure poverty, relieved
only a little by the admiration and patronage of a group of younger painters known as The
Ancients.
William Blake fell ill and died in 1827. His last drawing was a portrait of his wife Catherine,
drawn on his deathbed. Having completed this portrait (now lost), Blake laid down his tools
and began to sing hymns and verses. At six that evening, after promising his wife that he
would be with her always. Blake died. On the day of Catherines death, in October 1831,
she was as calm and cheerful as her husband, and called out to him to say she was coming
to him.
Please read the poem read the following poem
To the Evening Star William Blakes Songs of Experience given below;
To the Evening Star

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

2. Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light
3. Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown
4. Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!
5. Smile on our loves, and, while thou drawest the
6. Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew
7. On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes
8. In timely sleep. Let the west wind sleep on
9. The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes
10. And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,
11. Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,
12. And then the lion glares through the dun forest;
13. The fleeces of our flocks are cover'd with
14. Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence
In his poem To the Evening Star, English poet William Blake admires the planet Venus,
which is also known as the evening star." The poet is symbolically referring lo types of
people in society.

Poetic devices used by Blake

Symbols used by Blake

The poem contains fourteen lines with three quatrains [three stanzas with four lines in each
stanza] and one couplet [two lines in the stanza]. This type of 14 lined poems is known as
sonnets.
Please read the poem with the meanings of the words given.

What do you think; the first stanza is referring to?

Surely it is clear enough that the poet is referring
to the evening star which is usually seen in the
early evening in the sky also known as Venus; the
goddess of the night. Accordingly now you can
understand that it is an address to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility.
Blake describes, in a very elegant way, how lovely the evening star is, using this metaphor
to express the shining star as a beautiful goddess who watches over the people during the
dark night. The poet or the speaker in this poem is calling upon Her as a fair-haired angel
of the evening who comes out just after the sun sets wearing her radiant crown lighting
her bright torch of love and shines. The speaker knows that it is only during night, the
evening star holds the power to put an end to all of daytimes rules.
Did you notice how the poet has successfully constructed the poem with 5 metaphors
focusing our attention on the power of nature flow smoothly? Torch of love (line 3) is a
typical metaphor that transforms one item into mother, which then shares all
characteristics. In this case, the torch is literally starlight in the sky.

Metaphorically it is a light empowered with love. This suggests the warm love of god, which
metaphorically shines upon the people of earth. If you really want to enjoy the poem
spend several minutes considering each metaphor in this stanza and experience how each
metaphor (lines 1 & 3 fair-haird angel" torch of love" radiant crown") adds deeper
meaning than literal language to the poem.
Hope you remember "personification" means giving human characteristics to non-living
things. The first example of personification can be seen in line two, when the sun rests on
the mountains is used to describe the way the sun is setting. The sun seems more human
and gentle with the verb "rests" rather than sets.
Moreover, did you notice that the "star" which represents unmatched moments of struggle
between oppositions. For instance, star is a bright torch while everything else is dark.
Further. notice that the bed is "our" and not mine which indicates that it is a shared
territory of himself and other people and the speaker is beckoning Venus to bless the
evening bed of humankind or our resting bed which could be earth!
Blake uses anastrophe [inversion the usual order of words Thy radiant crown Put on, and
smile upon our evening bed! without inversion it should be Put on thy radiant crown, and
smile upon our evening bed!"] to address the star directly and urges the star to "smile upon
our evening beds." This anastrophe brings about a romantic and soothing essence to the
poem and shows Blake's belief that the star is able to turn the dark night into a calm and
dreamy situation.
Lets see what Blake has told in the second stanza;
Smile on our loves; and when thou drawest the
Blue curtains, scatter thy silver dew
On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes
In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on
The second quatrain [four lined stanza] is telling about his cry for protection. He talks about
every little thing that he wants to happen so theyre protected. The poet is pleading the
goddess Venus who is seen in the evenings after the sun has set and has hidden behind the
mountains to smile on the ones we love may it be relatives , lovers animals etc. Further he
urges her to draw the blue curtain making the sky look blue and to scatter or spread her
silvery dew drops which could be a blessing in the form of a liquid (in the form of dew in
this occurrence) on almost every flower that usually shuts its petals at night ("shuts its
sweet eyes) in order to obtain calm sleep. In addition to that she is asked by the poet to
command the west winds to calm down and sleep without destroying the floral beauty of
the forest.
As a reader what do you feel when the poet tells the flowers "shut its sweet eyes"? Dont
you feel that it brings about a non-threatening tone to the poem?
Now lets see the use of devices in this stanza. The evening sky truly comes alive with
Blakes repeated use of devices such as metaphor and personification. He uses these
techniques to make us feel the beauty of the night sky and to give human qualities to the
stars and sky when he writes "flower that shuts its sweet eyes" instead of shutting their
petals and west wind sleep" instead of stop blowing. As you know that the blue

curtainsare a metaphor for the night sky because it looks blue. Consonance on line 7:
shuts its sweet eyes has no real influence concerning the poem.
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:
In the third quatrain also she (goddess of love. beauty and fertility) is asked by the poet to
make the west winds rest over the lake and spread silence and peace all over. As students
of literature you must know that oxymoron is a device by which contradictory terms are
used in combination in order to create new meanings and lasting images and to open up for
new interpretation. Did you notice that the poet has used that device in the middle of the
first line, of the third stanza in this sonnet? With the use of oxymoron speak, Silence the
poet requests the Evening Star to proclaim silence and order in the forest through her
beautiful and glimmering (shining) eyes to the world without speaking and to paint the
curtain (sky at dusk) with silver which means that the silver stars that appear soon fill the
sky as the night arrives and makes the entire sky look like silver so that their light can
reach us and protect us. Then poet tells that he knows that the time comes too soon for her
to withdraw (leave) and when she goes, the dangers of the night will thrive. In other words
as soon as she withdraws the wild animals (e.g. lions, wolves.etc.) will find a chance to eat
the innocents (e.g. sheep. humans. etc.).
Poets use of metaphor, personification and symbolism is easily seen through his
description of the night. The wolf will howl in pleasure and perhaps the lion will pensively
stare at a flock of sheep planning to attack at night in darkness which are the emblems of
evils. Again we have a struggle of opposites here, this time symbolized through predator
and prey that further builds up Blakes theme of the cyclic and dialectic nature of the
universe in which we live.
The fleece of our flocks are covered with
Thy sacred dew; Protect them with thine influence.
Finally, the couplet ends it by tying it all together, with his last cry of protection over his
flocks". In fact, the poet is praying to God (shepherd) to take care of his beloved ones who,
every now and then, are confronted with corrupted or suspicious people symbolized by
wolves and lions. In other words his plead is to protect all the innocent humankind (sheep)
who becomes victims of the lions and the wolves that come during night by covering the
mankind (flocks of sheep) from the dew drops (holy water) that the evening star had
scattered on humans.
Blake must have written this poem to show the huge effect nature has on one's everyday
life. For example, without the star, the night would be dark and forbidding. However, the
star makes the night beautiful, peaceful and romantic. He also goes further to show how
nature even can protect our fragile lives. He claims that the star protects people front the
violent lion and wolf lurking in the forest. In To the Evening Star, Blake successfully shows
how all the elements of nature can come together to create a beautiful, perfect situation.
For example, the star shines brightly, the lake reflects the light, and the wind gently blows.
These three actions come together to produce a beautiful scenery which many humans
take advantage of every night.

In conclusion, you may have understood that the lines to the Evening Star are
incomparably sweet and haunting because the verses like these remain like a beautiful
echo in the memory, having a musical charm apart from the sense of the words. Blake's
manifestation of himself as a designer and painter, has given life for the creative impulse
that clothed his thought in a garment of beautiful words for us to enjoy.