Analysis of sound and sense in Mohan Singh's Evening

¶ … Evening," Mohan Singh celebrates the mystery of erotic love. Mohan Singh communicates the themes of life and love using symbolism, diction, and imagery. There are two "characters" in Singh's "Evening," that of Evening, and that of the horse. The Evening has a female connotation, and the horse has a male connotation, as the horse is described with masculine pronouns like "his," whereas Evening is described with feminine pronouns like "her."

Singh uses sexual symbolism to explore the mysteries of erotic love as the union of male and female. Sexual imagery pervades the poem. For example, the first line introduces the horse as "panting" as he "reaches the shores of evening." The imagery suggests the heavy breathing, the panting, that occurs during sex, and the "shores of evening" symbolize the woman's moist sexuality. Imagery related to moistness continues, as the horse "throws red foam from his mouth," and "his vermillion mane" is "wet with perspiration." The color red, which also symbolizes eroticism, permeates the first stanza of "Evening" and is especially associated with the horse's virility and wild masculinity, which Evening tames.

Diction plays an important role in conveying the theme of erotic love. In the second stanza, the word "pricked" is used to allude to the male sexual organ. The word "comes" starts off the second stanza: "The mellow-colored Evening comes / And places her hand between his pricked ears." Evening "places her hand between his pricked ears" as a sensual display of love and affection, which followed by further phallic imagery of "her long fingers" that "feel the hot breath from his nostrils / And take the bridle from his mouth."

Imagery suggests that erotic union is a process whereby wild, untamed sexual energy is subdued and perfected. Singh further suggests a gender binary, in which the male is associated with unbridled sexual passion, whereas the female is associated with gentleness and civilization. Evening's gentle touch tames "the restive animal," and she is able to ride the wild horse into the "stable of darkness." Her touch is essential for taming the animal. Gender binaries are also evident in the fact that the horse is called a "sun" horse in the first line of the poem. Imagery of the sun contrasts directly with the titular evening, which is the domain of the moon. Thus, sexually suggestive imagery is used in "Evening" to convey the theme of mystery in erotic love. Erotic love is portrayed as a union of opposites, of wildness and tameness, day and night, light and darkness, noise and silence. Although Singh presents gender binaries, the poet empowers the woman by showing that she and only she has the power to tame the horse. She can "take the bridle from his mouth." The word "bridle" is related to the word "bride," which implicates the male social domination of women in the domestic sphere. Therefore, "Evening" has a healthy dose of irony built into its imagery. It is ironic that the male has social and political power over the women, but that the woman has sexual and erotic power over the man.