In this sonnet, Longfellow watches Venus glow in the western sky just after sunset, imagining it as a lovely woman at a lit casement. The planet’s brilliance gradually softens; the speaker pictures her slipping off radiant garments and reclining drowsily behind a dark screen of pines. The poem then turns into a direct, tender address to the speaker’s own beloved, calling her “my sweet Hesperus”—his morning and his evening star of love. The comparison is delicate: just as the evening star dims and withdraws, she too moves toward sleep each night, the light in her window fading into darkness. The mood is intimate and quietly longing, mixing celestial imagery with a domestic scene. There’s a gentle wistfulness in watching both the star’s light and her lighted room disappear, leaving only a sense of loving absence.
THE EVENING STAR — Summary
Lo! in the painted oriel of the West, Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines, Like a fair lady at her casement, shines The evening star, the star of love and rest! And then anon she doth herself divest Of all her radiant garments, and reclines Behind the sombre screen of yonder pines, With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed. O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus! My morning and my evening star of love! My best and gentlest lady! even thus, As that fair planet in the sky above, Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night, And from thy darkened window fades the light.