Essay Questions

“Evening Hawk” is a particularly dense poem with a great deal of imagery. How do Warren’s references to Plato contribute to a reading of this poem?

Buried deep within the highfalutin verbiage and imagery in this poem is a deeper commentary on the fallacy of humanity. Plato, a famed philosopher during Ancient Greece, is today revered as a visionary and a source of great and continued wisdom. Warren therefore uses Plato as a typifying example of all that humanity could be, and yet fails to be at the same time. In other words, Warren references Plato to draw parallels between the many failures of mankind and our ability to be remembered not for these failures, but for great and wise individuals, like Plato—whose work transcends time, space, and age. In other words, the use of Plato in this poem is meant to further minimize humanity’s goodness and paint man as an illness upon the world, one that can only be redeemed by particularly wise and virtuous men, such as Plato.

In “Tell Me A Story,” the poem concludes when the narrator hears a flock of geese and suggests they are flying north. What does this imagery suggest?

This imagery of knowing the direction of the geese that he cannot see is indicative of the narrator’s own faith in his own destiny. Geese are a particularly valuable symbol, due to their centuries-old natural instinct to fly north. Though the geese cannot see where they’re going, and though they have no map to follow other than deeply-ingrained natural instincts, they know they will eventually reach their intended destination. The narrator finds comfort in this and takes it as a sign that though he, himself has no map to follow and though he is unsure of his future destiny, he knows he will carve his own path and will eventually settle upon a safe, suitable, and peaceful destination. In short, this imagery suggests the narrator should take comfort in his future and destiny and recognize that, though the road may be long and uncertain, he will eventually reach his destination—even if he is unsure of that destination presently.

The poem “Evening Hawk” relies heavily upon mathematical inquiry and the description of abstract mathematical ideas. Why might Warren have chosen to include such descriptions at the beginning of this dense and complicated poem?

Mathematics is one of the oldest and perhaps most respected professions, industries, and areas of study. It is a complex, unmoving, far-reaching, and widely unchanging subject, one that fascinated our oldest ancestors and spurned the fame of some of the wisest, and most respected individuals—including Plato, who the narrator references in this poem. As such, the mathematical component of this poem is used to harken back to the Ancient World, where men and women were more virtuous and mankind less inclined to destroy both others and self. Additionally, math concepts are particularly cold, concrete, and unchanging. In this way, Warren is drawing a parallel between these mathematical components and modern mankind—who he depicts in a particularly negative light.