Theology

“Theology” is a lyric poem and something of narrative: It expresses the speaker’s argument and, in doing so, tells a miniature story. The speaker is like a third-person narrator. They guide the reader through what they believe happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The speaker is not impartial. They have a strong opinion about the creation myth, and their conviction compels them to write the poem.

The poem starts with contradiction. Line 1 begins and ends with negation words: “No, the serpent did not[.]” This line acts as a rebuttal, assuming knowledge of the creation myth it is subverting. The poem becomes argumentative as the speaker disputes what the serpent did to Adam and Eve. The speaker negates the commonly held belief that the serpent did “[s]educe Eve to the apple” (Line 3). They argue: “All that’s simply / Corruption of the facts” (Line 3-4). These lines clarify the speaker’s thesis or argument. What people commonly believe about the serpent, Eve, and the fruit or apple isn’t true.

The speaker’s tone is both informal and slightly elevated. “All that’s simply” (Line 3) has an informal tone. It uses common words or diction that a person is likely to hear in everyday conversation. Yet “[c]orruption of the facts” (Line 4) has a formal, sophisticated ring; it uses a technical term, “facts.” It’s as if the speaker isn’t talking about intangible spiritual matters but empirical events.

The speaker turns the creation myth into something of a science experiment. There are concrete results; so far, people have drawn the wrong conclusions from the material evidence.

In Stanza 2, the speaker proposes their version of events. In other words, they relay their thesis about what took place in the Garden of Eden. Their tone is direct and snappy; each line in Stanza 2 comprises a clipped sentence. Once again, the speaker comes across as something of a scientist—it’s as if they’re examining a specimen or data sample and dictating their conclusion. There’s a clear right and wrong answer, and the speaker thinks that they are right. Another way to think of the speaker is as a mathematician. Instead of solving a problem involving numbers, they’re explaining a problem consisting of figures from the Bible.

Similar to a mathematician or scientist, the speaker takes a step-by-step approach. They break their argument up into pieces. It wasn’t Eve who went against God’s orders and ate from the Tree of Knowledge—it was Adam. The speaker inverts the conventional telling: The man, not the woman, disobeyed God. This introduces the theme of gender. The man went ahead and transgressed. The serpent didn’t manipulate the woman.

Next, “Eve ate Adam” (Line 6). This expands the theme of gender and gender norms. Historically, people infuse men with more power than women. Yet Eve is more powerful than Adam: She eats him. However, Eve is not more powerful than the serpent, as “[t]he serpent ate Eve” (Line 7). Ultimately, the serpent comes out on top. The serpent vanquishes Eve, who consumed Adam, who couldn’t stay away from the Tree of Knowledge and comes off as weakest.

The speaker describes the sequence: This is the dark intestine” (Line 8). The coupling of “dark” with “intestine” creates a gloomy, gothic tone. In the poem, the speaker may be calling the serpent the intestine. Like the intestine, the serpent has a slithering, coiling shape. The intestine may also refer to what the speaker believes are the real events that transpired in the Garden.

The speaker then pivots to a more casual tone: “The serpent, meanwhile” (Line 9). The word “meanwhile” drives the relaxed tone; it’s flippant and whimsical. The serpent’s nonchalance reinforces the offhand tone. He doesn’t seem to care much about what just happened as he “[s]leeps his meal off in Paradise” (Line 10).

The poem’s tone at the end is mischievous. The serpent smiles, proud of how he disrupted Adam, Eve, and the paradise God made. God is “querulous” (Line 12) and may be upset, but doesn’t take forceful action. He doesn’t banish the serpent or punish him. The final two lines continue the theme of power. The serpent has taken over the Garden of Eden and all God does is complain from a distance. This raises questions about God’s power and ability to control what happens down on Earth.