"Had Eve possessed a soul like sand, / Without a taint of aught decayed, / Unfructifiable as land / Whereon no herbs nor forests fade, // Then her Betrayer would have sought / An acquiescent ear in vain."

— Money-Coutts, Francis Burdett Thomas, 5th Lord Latimer (1852-1923)


Place of Publication
London and New York
Publisher
John Lane: The Bodley Head
Date
1900
Metaphor
"Had Eve possessed a soul like sand, / Without a taint of aught decayed, / Unfructifiable as land / Whereon no herbs nor forests fade, // Then her Betrayer would have sought / An acquiescent ear in vain."
Metaphor in Context
And hearts responsive to the sound
Insidious, of persuasive sin,
Must carry, like the garden-ground,
A welcome for what grows therein.

Had Eve possessed a soul like sand,
Without a taint of aught decayed,
Unfructifiable as land
Whereon no herbs nor forests fade,

Then her Betrayer would have sought
An acquiescent ear in vain
,
And all his careful tillage wrought
No germination of the grain.

Whence came that weed-receptive soil
That grants the tare such easy root,
And grows, for bread and wine and oil,
The blighted grain and cankered fruit?
(pp. 40-2)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Edition on Google Books: Link.
Date of Entry
12/23/2007

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.