T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Fall of Man
Anonymous(From The Point of View) A HAND omnipotent, in endless space, | |
From chaos, formed a world and found a place, | |
Where, through the countless ages, yet unborn, | |
A star might shine from dusk to rosy morn. | |
Great mountains rose, majestic in their might, | 5 |
And sun-kissed hills, aglow with mellow light, | |
And rippling streams went purling through the dales, | |
To silver lakes that glistened in the vales. | |
A subtle fragrance filled each shifting breeze, | |
The scent of flowers in bloom and budding trees. | 10 |
So beautiful the earth, in Nature’s eyes, | |
A soul was sent to dwell, in human guise, | |
A form of god-like beauty and of might, | |
To drink the sunshine and to dream at night, | |
Strange visions came to Nature’s first child, Man. | 15 |
In those old days, when first the world began, | |
Unclad and lone, he roved from spot to spot | |
And longed and yearned for something which was not. | |
Until, at last, a prayer went up to Heaven | |
And Nature’s noblest gift to man was given: | 20 |
A gentle, throbbing, trembling, beauteous maid, | |
Fair as the man, but with a softer shade, | |
Endowed with beauty and a thousand charms | |
That sought the sheltering clasp of loving arms. | |
As children play, in childhood’s happy hours, | 25 |
They romped and played among the sylvan bowers, | |
Or sported in the streams whose waters sweet | |
Ran cool beneath the trees at noonday’s heat. | |
And when night’s sable banners were unfurled | |
And darkness wound her arms about the world, | 30 |
On beds of roses, in some vine-clad nest, | |
Their drowsy senses found untroubled rest | |
And wandering zephyrs swept across them there, | |
Unclad, but unashamed, in Eden fair. | |
No thought had come to them of wild desire | 35 |
And yet, at times, a smouldering, hidden fire | |
Seemed slumbering deep within and fiercer burned, | |
When, in their sleep, they toward each other turned, | |
One ambient night of blissful summer-time, | |
A perfect night of Eden’s balmy clime, | 40 |
Eve stretched her languorous limbs in restless sleep | |
And Adam, at her side, sought slumber deep. | |
Some trifling thing, perhaps a wind-swayed fern, | |
A leaf—a bird—caused both of them to turn. | |
Eve’s rounded arm was thrown above her head, | 45 |
Her dimpled knee, just lifted from its bed, | |
When, by this chance, this trifle, light as air, | |
Their warm lips met, and, trembling, lingered there. | |
They slept no more from dusk to rosy dawn, | |
’Mongst roses red or on some grassy lawn, | 50 |
But wakened often, from strange dreams of bliss, | |
To find their mouths all melting in a kiss. | |
Their hearts were filled with vague, unknown desire, | |
Nor knew they how to quench the wondrous fire. | |
A wild unrest upon them settled down | 55 |
And Adam’s brow would often wear a frown, | |
And then again, he’d stroke her glorious hair | |
And gaze into her eyes and call her fair, | |
Then clasp her fiercely, with encircling arm, | |
As though to shield her from impending harm, | 60 |
Then wildly kiss her—eyes—mouth—neck and breast, | |
While she against him, tightly, closely press’t | |
Still waited, hungered, starved for something more, | |
Yet little knew what nature had in store. | |
Just how the fall occurred, so long ago, | 65 |
The modern world should naturally know. | |
Not touching on his grievous fall from grace, | |
But just a hint at what we know took place, | |
And if his fall was premature, what then! | |
That sometimes happens to the best of men. | 70 |
Eve’s little, truant, tapering fingers slim, | |
Beloved of Adam and caressed by him, | |
By accident, one night, grew wondrous wise, | |
And found just where the trees of knowledge rise. | |
Amazed, surprise, confounded, if you please, | 75 |
But, womanlike, inclined a bit to tease, | |
She tried experiments of many a kind, | |
To learn by which she most delight could find? | |
And Adam, dizzy with her new-found charms, | |
Gave way to every pressure of her arms | 80 |
And gave her childish innocence full sway, | |
Nor cared to check her or to say her: “Nay.” | |
Then suddenly, with savage, passionate clasp, | |
She drew him to her with an eager grasp | |
And sank exhausted, yet with cheeks aflame, | 85 |
Athrill with feelings which she could not name | |
And Adam, swept away, on seas of bliss, | |
Poured all his soul in one, long, clinging kiss. | |
’T was pain, ’t was pleasure, ’t was a joy intense. | |
It seemed as though along each quivering sense, | 90 |
Swift rivulets of fire had found their way | |
And burned their hearts. They knew not night nor day, | |
Nor life, nor death, nor aught that mortals know. | |
They only knew they loved each other so. | |
Nor dreamed they, even yet, of further joy, | 95 |
The one swift dream that comes without alloy, | |
And blends two loving natures into one, | |
Too sweet to last—that ends ere ’tis begun. | |
It came to them like lightning from the sky. | |
Each thought the very hour of death was nigh, | 100 |
Yet longed to live. Delirious pain | |
Went sweeping through their inmost souls again | |
And black oblivion brooded for an hour, | |
O’er passion’s birth in Eden’s rosy bower. | |
And when, at last, Eve wakened from her swoon, | 105 |
The night had fled. The glare of Eden’s noon | |
Sent showers of golden light through waving trees, | |
And subtle fragrance lingered on the breeze. | |
Throughout the realm of Eden’s joyous bower, | |
All things that lived were happy in that hour, | 110 |
For, led by sweet desire, example given, | |
They found, on earth, the one foretaste of Heaven. | |
And since you must know all there is to know, | |
When Eve awakened, in a blushing glow, | |
Her thirst for knowledge, seeking to know all, | 115 |
Discovered first the secret of the fall. | |
She sought the source of her new-found delight, | |
Turned pale, grew faint and trembled at the sight. | |
The Tree of Knowledge stood—ah! yes, it stood. | |
Past tense, you see—and while the past was good, | 120 |
The present need was great, without a doubt | |
And pretty Eve began to fret and pout. | |
She wept and sighed and said “I see it all, | |
For here was death and there, alas! the fall.” | |