Let woman fear to teach and bear to learn, Remembering the first woman's first mistake. Eve had for pupil the inquiring snake, Whose doubts she answered on a great concern; But he the tables so contrived to turn, It next was his to give and her's to take; Till man deemed poison sweet for her sweet sake, And fired a train by which the world must burn. Did Adam love his Eve from first to last? I think so; as we love who works us ill, And wounds us to the quick, yet loves us still. Love pardons the unpardonable past: Love in a dominant embrace holds fast His frailer self, and saves without her will. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GRENADIER by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN DAY AND NIGHT by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH FEMININE TALK by MAXWELL BODENHEIM THE SHEPHERD'S PIPE: THIRD ECLOGUE by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) TO THE LAKES by WILLIAM WILFRED CAMPBELL |