The poem Eve Names the Animals, by Susan Donnelly is based upon the relationship
of Adam and Eve. I think that there are a few possible themes to this poem. One
possibility is that this poem is about the arbitrary naming of animals in the
beginning of time. Another possibility is that this poem addresses Adam and
Eve’s differing views that surround change. Eve questions the names of
animals. She sees that animals are named somewhat arbitrarily and sees a need
for change in the names of creatures. The poem begins by describing a dove, but
assigns the title lion to the creature. Next, a lion is described and assigned
the title of Dove. Eve goes on to say that she believes that man, in this case
Adam, never really knew animals. She claims that instead of focusing on the
sound of the word or how one feels saying it, Adam he lined up words according
to size and somewhat arbitrarily assigned names. In lines 12 to 14, Eve
expresses that Adam assigned a name to her. And this name stuck her to him. This
seems forceful and almost dominating. Because it does not seem like Eve had any
choice about it or chance to change it. I thought the title that Adam assigned
to her must have been woman or wife. I believe that he did this in order to
establish a link between them. However the poem said that he did it to comfort
Eve because she was not the first. It seems like Adam thought being linked to
Eve would make her accept a secondary position in the world because Adam was
created before Eve. Line 15 which says, “Mornings while he slept I got away”
is particularly striking. This line expresses that Eve wanted to escape Adam;
she wanted to have distance from him and not always be, “stuck to him.” In
this stanza Eve goes on to say that Pickerels, a type fish, hopped on branches
above her and spiders accompanied Eve on a walks, nosing everywhere, running up
to lick her hands. These names of these animals are intentionally changed to
prove her point, that names are not always accurate and more importantly are
should not always be constant. The descriptions given are really about a bird
and a dog. In the next stanza Eve says, “poor finch. I suppose I was woe to
him—the way he’d come looking for me, not wanting either of us to ever be
alone.” A Finch must be symbol for Adam and Eve must have disappointed him.
Maybe her need to be alone disappointed Adam. He did not like the fact that she
left him sleeping in the morning and got away. It seems like the name Adam gave
her was ineffective at alwayslinking her to him. This must have disappointed
Adam, although he still wanted her companionship. Lines 26 to 29 say that Eve
was a palomino, a raven, and a fox all at the same time. This seems to symbolize
that she has many personalities and really leads us to a main conclusion. Eve
likes change and variation and has personality that reflects this. Eve strung
words together as garland. She wore these words, or a metaphor for trying them
out. The next day I’d find them withered means that the meaning behind theses
words no longer fit. But this was okay because eve liked change. This poem
reflects Eve’s openness to change and separation, while expressing Adam’s
animosity towards it. Eve is more flexible in naming and bases it upon the sound
of words and how it feels to say them On the other hand Adam uses length of a
word to dictate the assignment of a creature to a title.