Evening by H. D.

It captures the moment when dusk settles over a garden. H. D. observes two plants — hepaticas and cornel trees — as they fade from sight with the diminishing light, swallowed by shadows. On a deeper level, the poem explores the theme of disappearance: the way beautiful things quietly and completely vanish each evening.

Imagism was a poetry movement from the 1910s that prioritized clear, vivid images instead of ornate language and vague concepts. 'Evening' exemplifies this approach: H. D. doesn’t dictate your emotions. Instead, she illustrates the light shifting from ridge to ridge, petals curling inward, and shadows blending — allowing the images to convey the emotions on their own.

H. D. is talking about hepaticas, a small wildflower that blooms in early spring and is recognized for its blue or purple petals. The spelling 'hypaticas' in the poem is an older or variant form. The phrase 'wide-spread under the light' indicates that they are fully open, and the observation that they close as darkness falls is accurate; many flowers do fold their petals at dusk.

It suggests that the flowers have vanished, consumed by darkness. H. D. chooses 'lost' instead of 'hidden' or 'dark' because it conveys a true sense of disappearance rather than mere concealment. This idea is echoed at the end of the second stanza ('both leaf / and leaf-shadow are lost'), reinforcing loss as the poem's subtle, recurring conclusion.

The repetition reflects the gradual, step-by-step spread of darkness. Light travels from ridge to ridge, from flower to flower—it doesn’t arrive all at once. Shadow follows shadow in the same gradual manner. This repeated grammatical structure allows the reader to sense the slow, inevitable approach of night instead of merely being informed about it.

Cornel refers to dogwood. H. D. chooses two specific plants instead of discussing 'flowers' in general, which is a hallmark of Imagism—concrete details are more vivid and trustworthy than vague generalizations. The cornel's white buds provide a brief flash of brightness in the second stanza before darkness prevails, creating a small moment of tension.

Both things are true at once. On the surface, it presents a detailed observation of nature. However, the repetition of the word 'lost' and the poem's conclusion, which circles back to a theme of complete erasure, imply that H. D. is reflecting on loss in a broader sense — the loss of beauty, clarity, and the things we cherish. The evening scene serves as a means to address disappearance without explicitly stating it.

The main devices are imagery (specific and vivid visual details), repetition (the parallel structures in both stanzas), free verse (lacking a rhyme scheme or fixed meter — the line breaks match the flow of attention), and personification (shadows 'dart' and 'seek,' as if they possess will). Additionally, there's a subtle use of color — blue tips, a bluer heart, white buds, and black creeping — that creates a visual transition from light to dark, giving it a painterly quality.