"No, the serpent did not
 Seduce Eve to the apple.
 All that's simply
 Corruption of the facts.

 Adam ate the apple.
 Eve ate Adam.
 The serpent ate Eve.
 This is the dark intestine.

 The serpent, meanwhile,
 Sleeps his meal off in Paradise -
 Smiling to hear
 God's querulous calling."

In the spirit of submitting poems about religion. This is one I find particularly impressive because of the unflinching directness with which it’s written - which is what keeps it from being more than just a momentary witticism. I specially love the incredible sense of despair that grips me everytime I read the lines ‘This is the dark intestine’ - because with that one line Hughes simply kills the laughter of the previous three (and is it just my imagination or is there a suggestion of the long geneologies of the Genesis in them) and suddenly plunges us into a sort of minor key, a note of unrelieved blackness. Philosophically, it’s not that profound a poem, but what makes it special is that despite this it sort of feels right.

— Aseem