Evening Hawk To Address Summary

Life and death are two of the most thought about concepts throughout the human race. These are also the ideas that Robert Warren uses his poem Evening Hawk to address. While the poem appears to be about a hawk flying through the sky with little regard to anything else, including time, a thrush that is still, and a flying bat that is wise beyond what humans can believe, Warren actually uses the poem to deliver a message challenging the concept of time that humans have created. It is through Warren’s use of complex diction, vivid images and figurative devices, and challenging ideas that he is able to use this modern bleak poem to reveal the truth behind the human conception of time and the relationship it has with nature.
The heart of this poem …show more content…
No matter how hard one tries, there is no way to avoid them. Despite this, as Warren reveals humanity is always trying to avoid death, which is one of the major faults of humanity. Rather than being focused on the moment, humans are always worried about what is coming next and thinking about everything that they have to do or how much time is left. On the contrary, nature lives in the moment. There is no foreboding feeling that death is constantly creeping up on it. The feelings each side has with death translates to the relationship they have with time. If one is afraid of death, like humans are, then they will be obsessed with time. On the other hand, if one is at peace with death, then they will not have to live by time. By beautifully capturing this relationship between nature and time and humans and time using descriptive diction, unusual figurative devices, and important contrasts, Warren is able to communicate the idea that the fixation on time is dangerous and will result in life without much meaning because of the inability to focus on anything other than time. Humans should spend more effort on paying attention to life, like nature does, and less effort paying attention to time, like they do