Adam
Adam - meaning Summary
Perseverance After Eden
The poem imagines Adam at a cathedral, astonished by a sudden apotheosis and set apart to witness later human life. He stands steady, accepting his role and endurance like a husbandman who, having begun in Eden without knowing an end, finds a way into a new earth. The voice emphasizes human persistence and generative hope: despite God’s warning of death, mankind continues, confident that "she will bring forth."
Read Complete AnalysesMarveling he stands on the cathedral's steep ascent, close to the rose window, as though frightened at the apotheosis which grew and all at once set him down over these and these. And straight he stands and glad of his endurance, simply determined; as the husbandman who began and who knew not how from the garden of Eden finished-full to find a way out into the new earth. God was hard to persuade; and threatened him, instead of acceding, ever and again, that he would die. Yet man persisted: she will bring forth.
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