Omen Study Guide

Omen Summary and Analysis

Preview of Omen Summary:

Stanzas 1 and 2

"Omen" begins with a speaker lying on his side in the "moist grass," drifting into a "fitful," or restless, "half-sleep." It is nighttime. Given that Hirsch's first two poetry collections tended to focus on insomniacs, a reader familiar with the poet might assume that the speaker of "Omen" is regularly unable to sleep at night. During his half-sleep, the speaker listens to the wind in the trees and, in stanza 2, notices the moon coming out.

Describing the moon as "one-eyed," Hirsch uses a poetic technique called "personification," or the attribution of human qualities to something that is not human. The speaker says the moon "turns away from the ground, smudged," as though looking at the ground has marked its "glassy" eye. Getting ready to describe the October sky and how it relates to his thoughts, the speaker then notes, "the nights are getting cold."

Stanzas 3 and 4

In the night...
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