Night

Overview of the poem

• seen as an extension of ‘To the evening star’ and ‘poetical sketches’

• depicts night as both beautiful but dangerous

• ‘our flocks’ - require divine protection

• darkness brings comfort to the natural world

• angels are unable to control the free will and naturalisation of predators

Night

• symbol of death

• also represents a more primitive instinctual and dangerous impulse whose actions cannot be governed by a divine power alone

“sun …star…flower…green fields….blossom”

• pastoral imagery

• combined with abstract emotions “joy … delight”

• and religious imagery “flock … angel”

• oppositions are abundant in the poem suggesting state of innocence cannot be extracted from the world of experience

Enjambment

• used more in the second part of each stanza

• increases the pace, inevitability and power of the actions being described

Structure of the poem

• a poem of 2 halves : innocence and experience, heaven and earth, night and ‘immortal’ day

• 1st half = pastoral setting where benevolent moon and stars appear and there is the guardianship of angels who nurture and protect life

• 3rd stanza - ominous world begins to encroach on the innocent

• 2nd half = danger in the form of predators introduced resulting in the death of their prey and their ascension to heaven

“wolves”

• Biblical imagery

• allusion to Isaiah “The wolf will lie with the lamb”

• suggesting that the predator and the prey are reconciled and living in the kingdom of heaven

“howl…pitying … dreadful”

• introduces violence, danger and death to the poem

• before transforming darkness into an inherited world of heaven

Rhyme scheme

• regular rhyme scheme

• alternative rhyme followed by 2 couplets

• couplets may give a final feel to the ending of each stanza

Speaker

• suggested speaker wants to achieve a state of innocence joining natural and supernatural

• natural for the child but unnatural for an adult who has lost their innocence

• the speakers frustration creates a tone of melancholy in the poem as it attempts to attain a higher state of innocence