"Eden" Emily Grosholz

Emily Grosholz is a poet, literary critic and philosopher. She was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She attended the University of Chicago, where she received her B.A. in 1972, and Yale University, where she received her Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1978. She has traveled widely in Italy and Greece, and lived in Germany, France, and England. Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies and Fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, and Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, she is married to the medievalist and soccer coach Robert R. Edwards. They have four children, Benjamin, Robert, William Jules-Yves, and Mary-Frances (Poetnet.org).

In lurid cartoon colors, the big baby
dinosaur steps backwards under the shadow
of an approaching tyrannosaurus rex.
"His mommy going to fix it," you remark,
serenely anxious, hoping for the best.

After the big explosion, after the lights
go down inside the house and up the street,
we rush outdoors to find a squirrel stopped
in straws of half-gnawed cable. I explain,
trying to fit the facts, "The squirrel is dead."

No, you explain it otherwise to me.
"He's sleeping. And his mommy going to come."
Later, when the squirrel has been removed,
"His mommy fix him," you insist, insisting
on the right to know what you believe.

The world is truly full of fabulous
great and curious small inhabitants,
and you're the freshly minted, unashamed
Adam in this garden. You preside,
appreciate, and judge our proper names.

Like God, I brought you here.
Like God, I seem to be omnipotent,
mostly helpful, sometimes angry as hell.
I fix whatever minor faults arise
with bandaids, batteries, masking tape, and pills.

But I am powerless, as you must know,
to chase the serpent sliding in the grass,
or the tall angel with the flaming sword
who scares you when he rises suddenly
behind the gates of sunset.

The speaker's tone in Emily Grosholz's poem, "Eden" is dynamic, beginning as childish, playful, and simple, and ending as lofty, grandiose, and dignified. This shift is catalyzed by Grosholz’s diction, poetic structure, and metaphor. The beginning of the poem mirrors, in many ways, a nursery rhyme or a children’s story. The narrative poem, accounted by who we assume to be a mother opens with a metaphor using dinosaurs and cartoons -- any kid’s two favorite things. This, in addition to the baby-like dialogue, “His mommy going to fix it," sets a tone that seems to be lighthearted and childish, continuing until a turning point in which the speaker uses an extended metaphor, comparing her son to Adam, herself to God, and their situation to Eden. This simple allusion automatically takes the poem to a graduated level, yet irony is found in the fact that the story of Adam and Eve is often told to little children. Even though the tone is more impressive, the subject matter has changed in a very minor way. The biblical allusion continues the even stanzas of four lines each. At first, this structure complements the playful nature that the nursery rhyme-like account embodies. Later, however, the quatrains add a finality and an authority to the speaker’s tone. They give the impression that there is a real plan behind the words on the page (kind of like how God had an intricate plan to create Adam and Eve). Grosholz’s change in tone is reflected through the diction, poetic structure, and metaphor, with an underlying irony that adds complexity to the seemingly simple narrative.