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Poet: Jane Kenyon
Poem: Let Evening Come
Poem of the Day:
Jul 17 2005
Comment 3 of 3, added on March 28th, 2006 at 9:01 PM.
Jane Kenyon wrote this poem for my friend, her minister, Jack Jensen. He was dying from cancer, and she wrote this poem and brought it to him after one of his long stays in the Dartmouth Hospital cancer wing.
The last time I saw Jack alive - during February vacation - he showed me the poem. He, the minister to so many lost souls, sighed. He could not put into words the loss that he believed he would have to face soon. Dylan's poem "Do not go gently into the night" was more his tone, though he hid his feelings to protect his wife and family from his fate.
I see him standing on the porch, weak and diminished, looking out towards me as I drove away. I never saw him again in the flesh. I have felt diminished ever since. A light had been extinguished in my life.
Jane loved Jack and wrote a tribute to his approaching death. I wish that both Jack and I could have shared her faith as so beautifully captured in her poem and in her hymns that she sang Jack on the last night of his life.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Douglass
a friend of Jack Jensen for three decades and an acquaintance of Jane Kenyon based on that friendship.
Donald Hall and I spoke at Jack's funeral.
chris Douglass from United States
Comment 2 of 3, added on January 27th, 2006 at 10:22 PM.
Such detail, to every thing, even the bottle in the ditch, God does not leave us comfortless. And so it is, her words become a comfort.
Ben Devoid from United States
Comment 1 of 3, added on May 3rd, 2005 at 10:53 AM.
This poem has a subtle cadence,with insightful verse. I especially like the last lines "God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come." I think everyone has felt some trepidation at one time or another as night fall approached.
Richard Crane from United States
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Comments
Jane Kenyon wrote this poem for my friend, her minister, Jack Jensen. He was dying from cancer, and she wrote this poem and brought it to him after one of his long stays in the Dartmouth Hospital cancer wing.
The last time I saw Jack alive - during February vacation - he showed me the poem. He, the minister to so many lost souls, sighed. He could not put into words the loss that he believed he would have to face soon. Dylan's poem "Do not go gently into the night" was more his tone, though he hid his feelings to protect his wife and family from his fate.
I see him standing on the porch, weak and diminished, looking out towards me as I drove away. I never saw him again in the flesh. I have felt diminished ever since. A light had been extinguished in my life.
Jane loved Jack and wrote a tribute to his approaching death. I wish that both Jack and I could have shared her faith as so beautifully captured in her poem and in her hymns that she sang Jack on the last night of his life.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Douglass
a friend of Jack Jensen for three decades and an acquaintance of Jane Kenyon based on that friendship.
Donald Hall and I spoke at Jack's funeral.
chris Douglass from United States