Analysis Of Evening Hawk, To Convey Mood And Meaning
In the verse Evening Hawk by Robert Penn Warren, takes us on a journey through the eyes of what he calls a creature “like Plato”. Warren watches the mighty hawk with awe as it flies through the day and night. The speaker conveys the mood and meaning, primarily through scenes, using diction and syntax.
In the first stanza Warren's diction is mainly describing the hawk's boldness. Words such as “angularity”, “tumultuous”, and “guttural” convey the landscape that the hawk is flying through. The hawk conveys the scene that contrasts between the day and night. “The hawk comes”, gives us a feeling of superiority as the hawk divides the time. Also, the diction gives the feeling of separation as the hawk comes.
The syntax forms images in our mind that the hawk is cutting the day out. “His wing scythes down another day”, shows the hawk is cutting out time with control. The “stalks of time” is “our error”. Warren shows that everybody makes mistakes which gives us the meaning that he hawk is judging us, “whose eye is unforgiving”. The hawk judgment is above average because he is “ancient” and “immense”.
Warren conveys to us the darkness and immensity of the world through language. “The earth grind on its axis”, shows the meaning that humans cannot control the earth. Time is coming to an end is a “drip in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar”. The speaker's diction like “black”, “scythes”, “heavy”, “darkness”, and “unforgiving”, conveys to us a sad and dark scene. The speaker's syntax is swift and steady like the hawk.
The verse uses the hawk to show he is mighty and admiring and he can see everything above us. By strong diction and syntax, Warren conveys his admiration for the hawk through scene but a critical view of humans through the meaning of the verse.