Fiddler's Farewell/The Story as I Understand It
The Story as I understand It
I think that Eve first told the callow Tree of apples,And taught the adolescent Serpent how to hissIts first wise word.I think the Angel with the Flaming SwordFollowed her with hot holy eyes,Remembering the red curve of her kissAs she passed out of Paradise.
See, how the apple-boughs are twisted in their pain,Weighed down with many a red-cheeked little Cain,And how the serpent writhes awayFrom man to this far day.An angel is a lovely lonely thingOf boundless wing.They are the banished ones that grieve;Not Eve!
Not Eve, her body quick with coming pride,Nor Adam walking there at her white side—A little heavily perhaps,Because of things scarce known,As yet not named:New tenderness for Eve, but not for Eve alone, Fears not yet fears—And out beyond, the world untamedOf which to makeTheir surer paradise of tears!
But in the Garden is a hallowed emptinessOf laws, forgotten now,Concerning fruit and flowers,That none shall ever blessOr break;And in the Garden is the one plucked BoughThat blossoms whimperingThrough a divine monotonyOf spring on spring.