Explication

Adam
High above he stands, beside the many
saintly figures fronting the cathedral's
gothic tympanum, close by the window
called the rose, and looks astonished at his
own deification which placed him there.

Erect and proud he smiles, and quite enjoys
this feat of his survival, willed by choice.
As labourer in the fields he made his start
and through his efforts brought to full fruition
the garden God named Eden. But where was
the hidden path that led to the New Earth?

God would not listen to his endless pleas.
Instead, He threatened him that he shall die.
Yet Adam stood his ground: Eve shall give birth.


In this poem the speaker is observing and giving life to a statue of the biblical image of Adam seen on a church spire, the speaker seems to be very satisfied. The poem uses standard stanza and line breakage, each paragraph is one long sentence and each line is about the same length. This set up is unusual for modernist poets but no unusual for the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The speaker’s Adam seems confused, yet satisfied with his position on the cathedral: “Looks astonished with his own deification which places him there… Erect and proud he smiles, and quite enjoys this feat of survival.” The speaker recalls the story of Adam in the next few lines, of how Adam was promised a better life on “New Earth” and how Adam plead with god for his own life. In the beginning of the poem the speaker was in awe of the majesty of the cathedral, but by the end the speaker is infatuated with the story of Adam, one of the many stories represented by the reliefs carved on the cathedral. The cathedral and its statures dwarfed the speaker but by recalling the story of Adam the significance of an individual to humanity is brought to life and the speaker seems less insignificant compared to the cathedral. The overall tone of the poem is one of satisfaction, the concluding line of the poem which mentions the birth of Adam and Eve’s child shows the superiority of man, god may have threatened Adam with death but Adam lives on through all his descendants, all humanity. Adam stands up to god, just as the speaker stands up the cathedral, a temple of god, by asserting the importance of the individual through the wisdom of Adams story.