Sunday, August 9, 2009

Eve's Second Sorrow

There are no images of Eve's second sorrow.

On the death of her son
From forseeable betrayal
There are contemplations of beauty.

Her sorrow then cannot be but precursor

To a Promethean blind hope

That Death might itself

Necessitate a salvation that only a medieval might understand.

But Adam surely died.
Did she cradle him in her arms?
I prefer to think she did--and Michealangelo captured something
Of the paradox in the Pieta:
A Mother mourning the death of the First Son, even
As an Eve shed tears for the passing of the second.

(image: (c) "The First Mourning." William Adolph Bourguereau

4 comments:

Linda Verlander said...

The mourning would be hard, not actually knowing there would be more.

Sure, there were children, but how could she know another Adam?

If you get my drift.

gregorbo said...

Mary B. (most recently of TMC) said it reminded her of della Francesco's fresco "the cycle of the True Cross" which does indeed have an image of Eve at the time of Adam's death. I'm going to have to check it out. (gregorbo)

Katy said...

Check out the painting here:

http://www.abcgallery.com/P/piero/piero15.html

Cheers!
Katy

gregorbo said...

Thanks, Kate!