whip poor will

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Whip-poor-will explanation

The poem, “Whip-poor-will” by Donald Hall is written beautifully with a sense of nature and family. Throughout this poem, Hall illustrates these natural occurrences, such as the “sandy ground”, “the last light of June”, and “a brown bird in the near—night, soaring over shed and woodshed to far dark fields”. The bird in this instance is a whippoorwill, defined as a nocturnal nightjar of Eastern North America that uses loud, repetitive calls suggestive of its name. The whippoorwill is an imaginary representation of the poets long lost grandfather.
The whippoorwill is active at night, when the subject of the poem is asleep, indicating that the memory of his grandfather is not needed at that time. When he hears the call “Wes-ley-Wells” each morning, he understands...

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