Adam and Eve, Titian

N.W. writes:

While reading the discussion following Brittany’s questions concerning the differences between the sexes, I was reminded of Richard Wilbur’s poem She. One aspect of the poem I always liked was Wilbur’s implicit observation that all things men hold dear they refer to as “she.” He writes of how she “in time took on / The look of every labor and its fruits,” an interesting observation; a husband labors to provide for his wife and family and his labors reflect his beloved. Wilbur is a master of his craft and his poems possess a resonant depth full of subtleties.

                             She

What was her beauty in our first estate
When Adam’s will was whole, and the least thing
Appeared the gift and creature of his king,
How should we guess? Resemblance had to wait

For separation, and in such a place
She so partook of water, light, and trees
As not to look like any of these.
He woke and gazed into her naked face.

But then she changed, and coming down amid
The flocks of Abel and the fields of Cain,
Clothed in their wish, her Eden graces hid,
A shape of plenty with a mop of grain,

She broke upon the world, in time took on
The look of every labor and its fruits.
Columnar in a robe of pleated lawn
She cupped her patient hand for attributes,

Was radiant captive of the farthest tower
And shed her honor on the fields of war,
Walked in her garden at the evening hour,
Her shadow like a dark ogival door,

Breasted the seas for all the westward ships
And, come to virgin country, changed again —
A moonlike being truest in eclipse
And subject goddess of the dreams of men.

Tree, temple, valley, prow, gazelle, machine,
More named and nameless than the morning star,
Lovely in every shape, in all unseen,
We dare not wish to find you as you are,

Whose apparition, biding time until
Desire decay and bring the latter age,
Shall flourish in the ruins of our will
And deck the broken stones like saxifrage.

                      — Richard Wilbur

—- Comments —

Lydia Sherman writes:

I suppose that is why a country or a ship was called a she, and why Proverbs refers to wisdom, understanding, knowledge, instruction and discretion as she. Take for example, Proverbs 4:5-13, and note the personification of the treasured things of the heart, into hers and shes.

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.
When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life. (Pro 4: 5-13)

I never figured out what the feminists big complaint was concerning the he/she balance in the Bible. The precious things of a spiritual nature are personified in the Bible as she.

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