The unidentified narrator of the poem stands in a mountainous area at twilight to watch a bird of prey in flight. Burdened by the awareness of mortality and human fallibility, the speaker looks to the natural world for guidance on how to face the inevitable coming of night. The narrator struggles with the weight of human history and the passage of time.

A predatory bird in flight at the close of the day. Personified as a creature wielding a scythe, it acts on pure instinct and ignores human constructs like time or error. It represents both the ruthless coming of night and the instinctual acceptance of life's final light.

A nocturnal winged creature that emerges as the twilight deepens into night. It flies through the sky using sharp hieroglyphics. These movements stand for an untranslatable wisdom about the coming dark. It offers an alternative image of survival in the absence of light.

The ancient Greek philosopher whose ideas are invoked by the speaker. Symbolized by a fixed star in the night sky, he represents the philosophical acceptance of death as a natural conclusion to human existence. His teachings offer the speaker intellectual comfort.

A small songbird traditionally associated with youth and early creativity. In the twilight setting of the poem, it has long since gone quiet. This silence symbolizes the fading of youth and the loss of creative energies as the day ends.