Let Evening Come

Much of the imagery and symbolism used in “Let Evening Come” is domestic, or of the house or farm. Kenyon, who is “remembered for her stoic portraits of domestic and rural life” (“Jane Kenyon.” Poetry Foundation), spent much of her life living on a farm in New Hampshire. By using the symbolism of domestic objects, Kenyon paints a scene of a quiet farmland where evening approaches; however, she also comments on the larger concept of time passing and “evening” being more than a single night, but many over hundreds or thousands of years. In Stanza 3, “the hoe abandoned / in the long grass” (Lines 7-8), for example, is a symbol for a passing form of work on a farm—farm work done by hand with a hoe. By using the word “abandoned” (Line 7), the hoe represents an object that has been laid down for some time; many evenings have come and gone since the hoe was used, so the lines take on a nostalgic tone for the time when farm work included this connection with the perceived simplicity of work done by hand.