Comparison between Venus and the Qualities of Evening Star
One cannot deny the poet William Blake is highly admired by the entire artistic
world for building up the poem To the Evening Star for appropriately comparing
the evening star with the goddess Venus. The poem finds several qualities of the
evening star equally match with qualities of the Venus.
Love, fertility and
prosperity, light of love and happiness, blessing the nature and creating the
comfortable environment for the people to live happily and the protection from
evilness are some the significant features of the Venus. These features are
obviously seen in the evening star too. That’s the poet intends to compare the
evening star with Venus.
According to Greek mythology the goddess Venus is considered to be the God for
the love, fertility and prosperity. The Greeks believe that the goddess Venus
fortunes the success of love. This paves the way for fertility in family and
prosperity at large in the country. In the same manner the poet finds the evening
star creating the mood of love among people. After the day work, people come and
have rest at home. The sun set and creates darkness. Nevertheless, this darkness is
eliminated by the sparkling light of the star and gives the partially lit environment
to the whole world, This creates the mood for people to share the love and develop
their fertility and prosperity. This very idea is expressed in the following lines.
“THOU fair-hair’d angel of the evening,
Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light
Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown
Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!
Smile on our loves” Thus the poet finds evening star creating an environment for
love, fertility and prosperity which are seen in Goddess Venus.
Further, the poet finds equilibrium between Venus and evening star in eliminating
darkness of ignorance and creating love and happiness. The Venus is meant for
eliminating ignorance of the people and giving them the wisdom of love and
happiness. In the same manner, the poet imagines that the evening star too removes
the darkness of the dusk by its bright beam of light. It eliminates the blue curtain
which means that darkness in the sky. The lines “while thou drawest the
Blue curtains of the sky” vividly assert that the evening star becomes the cause
for eliminating the darkness same as the goddess removes the ignorance and gives
the wisdom of love and happiness to the people.
On the other hand, the goddess Venus blesses the nature and creates conducive
environment for sharing of love. Likewise, in the poem we find that the evening
star blesses the nature by becoming a cause for showering dews on followers and
buds. Moreover, it brings the west wind and creates the cool and comfortable
environment for the people to live happily. This very image is seen in the lines
“scatter thy silver dew
On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes
In timely sleep. Let thy west wind sleep on
The lake.” Through these lines we can see that the poet vividly shows the nature
of blessing and creating comfortable environment of the star. This very quality is
seen in Venus as well.
Further, the poet shows the sharp comparison between evening star and Venus
considering the nature of protection. The goddess Venus is believed to give
protection for the people from evilness and elements of immoralities. Like manner,
the poet finds that the evening star too is able to give protection for the people
from evilness and wickedness. The poet imagines that when the evening star
disappears from the sky the darkness apprehends the world again. This paves the
way for wicked and terrific people to come out like lions and wolfs to harm the
innocent people in the world. This image is elevated in the lines
“Soon, full soon,
Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,
And then the lion glares through the dun forest”
Therefore the poet invokes the blessing of the evening star as in the lines “The
fleeces of our flocks are cover’d with
Thy sacred dew: protect them with thine influence!” Thus the poet urges
the protection from the evening star as he really finds the evening it that it is able
to protect the people from evilness like goddess Venus.
To conclude, the poet William Blake enjoys the big collar up in
appropriately comparing the nature of Venus to the deliberate qualities of the
evening star . Love, fertility and prosperity, light of love and happiness, blessing
the nature and creating comfortable environment and protecting the people from
evilness are some of the qualities of the goddess Venus. The poet intelligently
compares these qualities with nature of evening star. In my point of view, the
poet’s broader knowledge in mythological ideas have made him to be a great
successor in comparing Venus and the evening star in his poem To the Evening
Star
-Prepared in simple version for GCE (O/L) students-