The Evening Star by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker pictures the evening star as a lady who sheds her radiant garments and rests behind the pines, then compares its retreat to the beloved retiring for the night as the light fades from her window.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Sonnet, Love Poetry · 161 words
First lines
Lo! in the painted oriel of the West, / Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines, / Like a fair lady at her casement, shines / The evening star, the star of love and rest! / And then anon she doth herself divest / Of all her radiant garments, and reclines / Behind the sombre screen of yonder pines, / With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed. / O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus! / My morning and my evening star of love! / My best and gentlest lady! even thus, / As that fair planet in the sky above, / Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night, / And from thy darkened window fades the light.
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhymed lines turn from a personified evening star to an address to the beloved and close with a couplet.
- Love Poetry — The speaker addresses the beloved affectionately and compares her nightly retirement to the setting evening star.
Tags
evening sky · stars · love · sleep · sonnet
What this Textopian page supports
The Evening Star is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Sonnet, Love Poetry
- Length: 161 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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