Whip-Poor-Will\" by Donald Hall, There

¶ … Whip-poor-will" by Donald Hall, there is a sense of nature and family since the author demonstrates these two natural occurrences. For example, when he writes 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,." he is referring to the beautiful natural scenery that mother nature provides for the world. When reading this poem, it is apparent that the whippoorwill is an imaginary representation of Hall's long lost grandfather. Furthermore, the poem represents how the author sees nature and his family, which makes it obvious that both mean a lot to him.

After reading "sandy ground," "the last light of June," and "a brown bird in the near -- night, soaring over shed and woodshed to far dark fields," it is clear that Hall sees nature as a beautiful experience.

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 (First 1500 characters of whip poor will).

Along with that, the whippoorwill is free and represents the spirit of his grandfather, which is not needed when the subject is sleeping. This indicates that the subject misses his grandfather and the spirit of the whippoorwill knows and understands that absence.

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 his responsibility of labor on the family farm. The speaker is carrying on the tradition with his work that was done long ago by his grandfather, Wesley Wells. Once the whippoorwill has woken the speaker in the poem, the bird can "drowse all morning in his grassy hut."(lines 24 & 25) This makes it seem like the instant the speaker is awake, the whippoorwill's everyday job is done. A sense of relief comes about in the last stanza. By saying, "It is good to wake early in the high summer with work to do, and look out the window at the ghost bird lifting away to drowse all morning in his grassy hut"(lines 18-25), the speaker of the poem seems satisfied that his grandfather no longer has to look after him" (First 1500 characters of whip poor will).