A garland of quotations LXI

Culled from the finest patriarchs in literary history (antediluvian edition), and re-woven every Wednesday

Every ornament of perfection, and every labour of love,
In all the Gardens of Eden, & in all the golden mountains
Was become an envied horror, and a remembrance of jealousy:
And every Act a Crime, and Albion the punisher & judge.
•William Blake, Jerusalem (1820).

Do they wear “new shoes”—in “Eden”—
Is it always pleasant—there—
Won’t they scold us—when we’re homesick—
Or tell God—how cross we are—
•Emily Dickinson, “What is—‘Paradise’” (c. 1860).

And already there is a sign up:
KEEP OFF
THE GRASS
•Mark Twain, Extracts from Adam’s Diary (1893).

Eve, Eden’s empress, needs defended be;
The Serpent greets her when she seeks the tree.
Serene she sees the speckled tempter creep;
Gentle he seems—perversest schemer deep—
Yet endless pretexts, ever fresh, prefers,
Perverts her senses, revels when she errs,
Sneers when she weeps, regrets, repents, she fell;
Then, deep-reveng’d, reseeks the nether hell!
•Henry King (?), “The Fall of Eve” (1853) [univocalic verse].

Tell me, why did you touch fruit so harmful?
—My wife offered it to me.
But why did you taste it?
—She was persuasive.
•Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria Nova (ca. 1210).

Cain: Abel, you are a dead man.
Abel: Why am I a dead man?
•Representatio Adæ (C 12).

The Chaldaeans call man Enos; as if he were the only real man, who lived in expectation of good things, and who is established in good hopes; from which it is evident that they do not look upon the man devoid of hope as a man at all, but rather as an animal resembling a man, inasmuch as he is deprived of that most peculiar possession of the human soul, namely hope.
•Philo of Alexandria, Abraham (C1).

Concerning poor Methuselah, the facts can now be told;
He reached a fairly decent age, but wasn’t really old.
And the reason he deceived us, he would probably confess,
Was to get a fancy writeup in the Eden Valley Press.
•Stoddard King, “Methuselah” (1926).

Exalt with him at the clear sky.
   Proud Noahs of today,
For though we here and there descry
Morasses that no sun can dry
         (Regret them how we may),

God’s rainbow is a glorious toy,
   His wine a cheerful drink,
And since He chooses to destroy
Folk better dead, we wish Him joy,
         While choking at the stink.
•Robert Graves, “After the Flood” (1964).

…died all flesh, life utter extinct, man immortal swept an awful eternity; ocean alike destructive besom, save selected few, by heaven caverned, dungeoned unsullied, while swum amazed ether, Noah, his household, and the floating world…
•Albion: In Twelve Books (1822).

Reference: Dickinson: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Little Brown, 1976); H. King: Notes and Queries vol. 8 (George Bell, 1953); Geoffrey: trans. Margaret F. Nims (Pontifical Institute, 1967); Adæ : quoted in Will Durant, Age of Faith (Simon & Schuster, 1950); Philo: trans. C.D. Yonge, The Works of Philo Judaeus, the Contemporary of Josephus (Bohn, 1890); S. King: What the Queen Said and Other Facetious Fragments (Doran, 1926); Graves: Man Does, Woman Is (Doubleday, 1964); some of this material is copyrighted, and I plead only fair use.