"Eden" by Emily Grosholz

Emily Grosholz is a contemporary poet and a philosopher. She published this poem, "Eden", in 1992. She is currently a professor Pennsylvania State University.

In "Eden", Emily Grosholz contrasts the naivety of children with the dangers of the world by contrasting simple and childlike language with biblical imagery. At the beginning of the poem, she describes two incidents in which a child confronts mortality, at least indirectly. The language used by the child, which includes poor grammar indicative of one who has only recently begun to understand language, creates a very innocent tone. Like nearly every child who has not undergone some traumatic experience, the child in this poem has little understanding or fear of death. The author compares this understanding of the world to the biblical story of Adam, who was created without sin or death. Thus, the child, who does not understand death, is like Adam, who could not originally die. The biblical image is emphasized when the parent is compared to God, as the parent is a protector who, at least to the child, appears almost omnipotent. Up to this point in the poem, the biblical images are largely benign, serving only to emphasize the existing dynamic between the parent and the child. But in the last stanza, biblical imagery is used to illustrate a more ominous undertone to the situation. While the parent can protect the child from any danger the child will encounter under normal circumstances, she is powerless against much greater dangers. The author uses two specific images from the Garden of Eden story, the snake and the angel which guards the garden after Adam is ejected from it, to illustrate how truly powerless the parent is. This poem resembles the change in understanding which all people face when they grow up, namely that we learn of the true dangers of the world and lose our naive innocence. We have no choice - we must leave the garden.