Crow’s first lesson
The poem mentioned above is an interesting one because it presents a version of the story of creation. In this poem, the Crow is presented as being the first character created by God and thus God to try and teach him the ways of the world. God tries to teach the Crow the word ‘’Love’’ and the three stanzas represent the efforts God made to teach the Crow the word.
The first attempt was unsuccessful, and the result was the birth of a white shark, falling into the sea. Next, a blue fly, a tsetse and a mosquito came out of the mouth of the Crow and they all flew into the world. God tried one more time and this time a man came out and the man was eventually strangled by the vulva of a woman coming out of the Crow’s mouth. God tries for a while to separate the two but he is unsuccessful, so he leaves, leaving the Crow alone to watch the man and the woman fight and kill one another.
The poem is a retelling of the creation myth presented in the Bible. The Crow is the first creature to come into existence and God is attached to it. We can go even as far as to claim the Crow is maybe a representation for the Devil. God tries to teach the Crow the meaning of the word Love but is unsuccessful. What is more, the lesson has the opposite effect, and the Crow is only able to produce the opposite of the word. The creatures coming out of the Crow’s mouth are all destructive and promote the opposite of love. God continues to try and teach the Crow until the Crow ruins mankind. The last damage described in the poem is the adversity between men and women in the world. God tries to fix what was broken but is unable to, thus implying that God’s power is limited.
Another important element is the way the Crow is presented. The Crow is not described as being an evil creature, but rather someone who can’t control their actions. The Crow feels remorse looking at the damage it has caused but at the same time it knows there is nothing it can do to make things better and to fix them.
Crow Alights
In the poem ‘’Crow Alights’’ the narrator describes the world seen through the eyes of the crow. Nature is first described, and the idea transmitted is that nature is a ‘’virus’’ from God, something dangerous and something that has the power to harm. The Crow is affected by this realization, and he turns his attention towards something else, namely the fifth of the world. Nature tinted by garbage is described in an almost positive way, the narrator focusing on certain details hinting the degradation of the described objects.
The poem ends when the Crow redirects its gaze towards a single human, sitting in a dark room and smoking. The poem then closes by transmitting the idea that the crow is able to see everything and everyone.
In this poem, the Crow takes over the attributes God has in the Bible, namely his capacity to see everything and everyone. The Crow becomes a creature with immense power, a creature able to see humanity’s every move and see their reactions. Another important element we can note is how God is absent from the poem, thus implying that he may have been replaced.
Crow Communes
The action in the poem ‘’Crown Communes’’ takes place after God finished his creation. The first stanza claims God was tired after finishing creating the world and sat down to rest. The Crow came to him and asked God ‘’Which way?’’ implying thus that he needed God’s advice on what to do next and what its purpose is. God does not answer and is even compared to a ‘’great carcass’’ highlighting even more the way in which God was not responsive.
Enraged, the Crow tore a piece of flesh from God and ate it and he gained the wisdom he needed to understand the world and everything that was happening.
The end of the poem is important because it can be interpreted in at least two ways. First, the Crow’s action of tearing a piece of flesh from God can be seen as the Crow’s reluctance to wait for the truth to be revealed by God. Instead, the Crow took its future into its own hands and decided to pursue the truth. In a somehow similar fashion, humanity took a piece of flesh from God, in the eyes of the religious leaders, when they put their trust in science and abandoned the old ways.
The second way we can interpret the scene is through the lens of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. The couple sinned against God when they disobeyed him and ate from the forbidden tree. In a way, the effect was the same because both Adam and Eve and the Crow gained knowledge and wisdom. Thus, the narrator may have wanted to imply that the primordial couple’s actions can be compared with the act of eating a piece of flesh from the body of God.
