evening star

In “To the Evening Star”, Blake maintains his Sketches theme of the daily cycle as metaphor to innocence and experience. Specifically here, the speaker calls upon the “fair-hair’d angel of the evening” to protect him (all of us) against the evils of the night, and more importantly, inspire “whilst the sun rests” all that is oppressed during daytime.

The star represents the transcendent moments of struggle between oppositions. It is a “bright torch” while all else is dark, presenting a juxtaposition thus transcendent symbol. In reality, the star is most likely the planet Venus, the Goddess of love and beauty, and helps build Blake’s motif of eroticism and desires that must remain hidden under the light of the omniscient day (notice the bed is “our” and not “mine” indicating it is a shared domain). The speaker is beckoning Venus to bless the bed (some argue a bridal bed, although there is very little evidence elsewhere to support such notion) and to “smile on [their] love.”