Adam’s Task

By John Hollander b. 1929 John Hollander

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ... GEN. 2:20

Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted

Glurd; thou, whitestap, lurching through

The high-grown brush; thou, pliant-footed,

Implex; thou, awagabu.

Every burrower, each flier

Came for the name he had to give:

Gay, first work, ever to be prior,

Not yet sunk to primitive.

Thou, verdle; thou, McFleery’s pomma;

Thou; thou; thou—three types of grawl;

Thou, flisket; thou, kabasch; thou, comma-

Eared mashawk; thou, all; thou, all.

Were, in a fire of becoming,

Laboring to be burned away,

Then work, half-measuring, half-humming,

Would be as serious as play.

Thou, pambler; thou, rivarn; thou, greater

Wherret, and thou, lesser one;

Thou, sproal; thou, zant; thou, lily-eater.

Naming’s over. Day is done.

Source: Selected Poetry (1993)

Biography

John Hollander is one of contemporary poetry’s foremost poets, editors, and anthologists. Over the course of an astonishing career, Hollander has influenced generations of poets and thinkers with his critical work, his anthologies and his poetry. In the words of J. D. McClatchy, Hollander is "a formidable presence in American literary life." Hollander’s eminence as a scholar and critic is in some ways greater than his reputation . . .

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