The Coming on of Night

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2001

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Metaphor

Poets often use metaphor to discuss topics that are abstract. In the case of this poem, the speaker uses metaphors like the pilot light to talk about the abstract concept of “ambition” (Line 1), showing how it “sputters” (Line 2). She uses verbs associated with fire like “fiery” in “fiery /eccentricities” (Lines 5-6), “inextinguishable” (Line 7), “faded” (Line 7), and “snuffed out” (Line 8) to continue that metaphor of the drive of life being like a fire. The sunlight of daytime is also part of the metaphorical framework of this poem. Daytime/life extinguishes night/death.

Imagery

Metaphors are made up of imagery. The imagery in this poem includes the pilot light, darkness, evensong, and clocks. With the exception of “evensong” (Line 10), the rest of the uses of imagery are distinctly domestic, that is they are items an average person would find in their home. This poem is not for a special group of people but for everyone. On the converse, the imagery of “darkness” (Line 8) and “evensong” (Line 10) suggests that death is a part of nature, perhaps a respite from the mundanity of everyday living. It allows those experiencing a progression of life the opportunity to exit the responsibility of a household and experience something elevating, the sound of birds at evening time.

Point of View

“The Coming on of Night” employs the pronoun “we” (Line 9) only once, exactly halfway through the poem. This suggests the poem is not about the speaker specifically but about all people. All people will not only face death but also experience the moment of change when they become aware their life-force is fading or has “snuffed out” (Line 8). Granted, this does not describe the experience of dying suddenly or dying at a young age. It describes the experience of facing death only at the end of many years. The “we” (Line 9) refers to the population of aging people, but it can also preview for young people what they might expect if they too become elderly.

Form and Meter

The poem has a basic structural uniformity and symmetry with four stanzas of four lines each (a four-line stanza is called a quatrain). The first three stanzas, as a single sustained sentence, are a crescendo that build up to (and are punctuated by) the final, fourth stanza. Each stanza is also a prosodic unit, as it provides alliteration with the other stanzas; each begins with the same consonant sound: “When” (Line 1), “when” (Line 5), “we” (Line 9), “was” (Line 13). The repetition creates a sense of suspense that finds consummation in the final stanza’s last line—the final word of which concludes the alliteration: “world” (Line 16).

In contrast with the poem’s immediately conventional and thoroughly homogenous appearance as four quatrains, the poem is written in free verse; it has no regular meter or rhyme. Free verse was a common earmark of Confessional (and now Post-Confessional) poetry, as it seemed to promise some liberation from the formalist constraints of previous decades. Additionally, the metrical flexibility allows for composition of more natural diction—another esteemed merit in Confessionalism, which prizes authenticity and unmediated expression.