Eve Remembering

Toni Morrison

I tore from a limb fruit that had lost its green.
My hands were warmed by the heat of an apple
Fire red and humming.
I bit sweet power to the core.
How can I say what it was like?
The taste! The taste undid my eyes
And led me far from the gardens planted for a child
To wildernesses deeper than any master’s call.

Now these cool hands guide what they once caressed;
Lips forget what they have kissed.
My eyes now pool their light
Better the summit to see.

I would do it all over again:
Be the harbor and set the sail,
Loose the breeze and harness the gale,
Cherish the harvest of what I have been.
Better the summit to scale.
Better the summit to be.

Commentary

Morrison tactfully reframes Eve’s traditional guilt and shame narrative into one of empowerment, in part exemplifying her strength, resilience and autonomy. It has a similar thematic essence to the story of Icarus, in that both strong ambitions are met similarly with dissolution. Yet the difference is decisive: Eve does not perish from the height of her passions as Icarus does. Instead, she survives, transforms, and speaks — enlightening as the narrator of the poem. Eve controls her narrative through reflection and memory, an intentful incision by Morrison. She becomes a token of resistance against systemic erasure, a call for readers to transform their own summits into signifiers of identity and resistance against the oppressive weight of traditional narratives.