Evening Hawk

One of the most difficult questions humans encounter is how to confront their mortality. In “Evening Hawk,” Robert Penn Warren’s speaker acknowledges this powerful struggle by observing the natural world during the evening. At first disturbed by the passage of time, they later consider the concept set forth by the Greek philosopher Plato that death is the proper conclusion of any life. The speaker goes on to suggest that the only answer to fearing death lies in the embrace of light. Like the hawk, we must soar upward, turning an indifferent eye to the threats of shadow, taking comfort in what natural gifts remain.

As we go about our daily life, we often ignore the passage of time and the certainty of our own death. Sometimes we focus on what we can produce, thinking it can assure us an immortal place in the history of mankind. For the speaker, this is “the gold of our error” (Line 11). These pleasures cannot stop the closing down of another day, exemplified by the image of sunset and the hawk streaking across the purpling sky with its scythe-like wing. The speaker suggests, however, that if we dwell on this unstoppable passage of time, we could be driven mad by “hear[ing] / The earth grind on its axis, or history / Drip in darkness” (Lines 21-23).