Let Evening Come

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1990

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context

Kenyon, like her husband Donald Hall, writes in a poetic literary tradition that uses nostalgia as a lens into a past life rooted in domesticity, farming, and living off the land. The Poetry Foundation describes Hall’s poetry, which greatly influenced Kenyon’s, as “longing for a more bucolic past and [reflecting] the poet’s abiding reverence for nature” (“Donald Hall.” The Poetry Foundation). These words could easily describe Kenyon’s work, which deeply considers the natural way of life and bucolic ideals, or the pleasant aspects of the countryside. Pastoral is a word sometimes used to describe Kenyon’s work; it is a literary tradition that idealizes rural, rustic life. However, Kenyon, unlike many pastoral poets, lived the life she wrote about. Poems like “Let Evening Come,” “Coming Home at Twilight in Late Summer,” and “The Clearing” are all written not about the countryside but from the countryside.

Kenyon’s poems have long been compared to the English Romantic poet John Keats. Critics note that “like Keats, [Kenyon] attempts to redeem morbidity with a peculiar kind of gusto” (“Jane Kenyon.” The Poetry Foundation). This “gusto” is apparent in “Let Evening Come,” which considers a complicated topic (death) with a lightheartedness, even bordering on excitement or welcoming. According to Hall, Kenyon was enamored with Keats for two years in what he calls an “intense and obsessive absorption” (Hall, Donald. “The Third Thing.” The Poetry Foundation). Keats’s influence on Kenyon’s work is apparent in the rhythm of Kenyon’s work. Poems like “Let Evening Come” carry a meter unlike her other free verse work.

Authorial Context

Kenyon’s Let Evening Come is her third collection of poetry, published in 1990. Many consider this collection to be “Kenyon at the height of her powers” (“Jane Kenyon.” The Poetry Foundation). While published before Kenyon’s Leukemia diagnosis in 1994 and her subsequent death in 1995, “Let Evening Come” still marks a turn in the poet’s career, what Paul Breslin called “a darker turn” (The Poetry Foundation). Kenyon’s poems in this 1990 collection, including the titular poem, consider natural shifts like light giving way to darkness, day moving to night, and the more abstract shifts of how relationships with family and friends change over time. The collection also considers death more openly than previous work, perhaps an unhappy foreshadowing of Kenyon’s own approaching death.

Considering this historical context, “Let Evening Come” is the product of a poet reflecting on these complex cycles (light to dark, life to death) and trying to attain some sort of understanding. Kenyon leans on acceptance. Because the turning of these cycles cannot be stopped, rather than fight them or grow frightened or sad, Kenyon, instead, chooses calm observation. In “Let Evening Come,” light moving to darkness and life moving to death wash over the speaker, the reader, and Kenyon like a wave. With tranquility, Kenyon moves with the cycles rather than against them. This wave-like quality mimics the way Kenyon wrote the poem, which she describes in a 1993 interview with Bill Moyers. Kenyon states, “I went upstairs one day with the purpose of writing something redeeming, which is not the way to write, but this just fell out. I really didn’t have to struggle with it” (“A Life Together: Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon.” www.billmoyers.com).