Jane Kenyon Let Evening Come Analysis

As a young child, Jane Kenyon faced difficulties with depression, including losing all faith in God. Growing up, Jane Kenyon’s father suffered from clinical depression and her mother experienced manic depression (Parini 159). Kenyon never felt comfortable throughout her school years, struggling not only with academics, such as, math, but also with creating close friendships. During her years at the University of Michigan, Kenyon left for one year due to her first serious encounter with depression and loss of self identity. Moreover, her family forced Kenyon to believe in their “narrow religious eyes”, forbidding her to explore herself as an individual (Timmerman). Her grandmother specifically imposed religious fear in Kenyon, as Jane Kenyon learned to accept that “Jesus would come in the night to judge [her] life”. This
Coping with the difficulty of her challenging illness, Kenyon allows herself to experience “brief moments of release” through nature, which sustains her throughout her life (Covintree). As Kenyon observes the light at the end of the day “shin[ing] through chinks in the barn”(2) she realizes the beauty of insignificant moments (Harris). Listening to the sound of a cricket's voice and a women knitting in the evening, Kenyon acknowledges the importance and role of the “animate and inanimate” in the natural cycle (Milne, 126). When “the fox go[es] back to its sandy den”(10), he awaits “the miracle of restoration that is sleep” (Peseroff 189), which can comfort and offer solace after a busy day (Milne, 118). Frequently opening stanzas with the word “Let”, Kenyon instructs the reader that at the end of an active day “all must let go” (Milne, 115). Through the beauty of seemingly insignificant moments in nature, Kenyon learns not only to acknowledge the elegance around her but also to accept the idea of letting