John Roddam Spencer Stanhope’s Eve Tempted by the Serpent, by Stephen Gibson

Eve Tempted by the Serpent, by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (UK). 1877.

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope’s Eve Tempted by the Serpent
 
 
Because it promised her it would not tell,
she didn’t leave although she thought she should.
She stood there watching where the apple fell.
 
A moment’s angst—she’d felt her stomach swell
(a silly thought—she needn’t knock on wood--
because it promised her it would not tell).
 
Inside, however, she still did not feel well,
and she would undo one thing if she could--
she stood there watching where the apple fell.
 
Before it happened, she began to yell
but it calmed her and said it understood--
she made it promise that it would not tell.
 
She thought: the path to heaven goes through hell
but hoped that in the end all would be good.
She stood there watching where the apple fell.
 
The serpent hissed, then coiled into a shell,
still looking at her from beneath its hood.
Because it promised her it would not tell,
she stood there watching where the apple fell.

Stephen Gibson

Stephen Gibson: "My latest poetry collection, Self-Portrait in a Door-Length Mirror, was selected by Billy Collins as winner of the 2017 Miller Williams Prize from the University of Arkansas Press and was published this past January. I’ve also published six prior collections: The Garden of Earthly Delights Book of Ghazals (Texas Review Press, 2016), Rorschach Art Too (2014 Donald Justice Prize, Story Line Press, West Chester University), Paradise (Miller Williams prize finalist, University of Arkansas Press), Frescoes (Lost Horse Press book prize), Masaccio’s Expulsion (MARGIE/IntuiT House book prize), and Rorschach Art (Red Hen Press)."