Group C - Venus and the Ark

I agree that the imagery of “Venus and the Ark” is quite elaborate. There is very a strong contrast between the way he describes Venus and the way he describes Earth. When Anne Sexton talks about Earth, she will often use very negative descriptions like when she described the nuked planet as “a forgotten pitted stone.” Venus on the other hand is described very cheerfully and optimistically especially in the final stanza where all the animals that the Doctors had released on the new planet are thriving.

One thing I found interesting while I was reading “Venus and the Ark” was the obvious parallel to the Old Testament story, Noah's Ark. In the old story, God decides that man has become corrupt and that it is necessary to wipe out all life on Earth with a great flood. Noah, who God sees as untainted by the wickedness of man, is instructed to build a great ship to survive the flood. After constructing the Ark and gathering a pair of each animal, the flood comes and covers the Earth. When the waters recede, Noah, his family, and the animals are left to repopulate the now clean Earth. I feel that the parallels to Anne Sexton's story are blatantly obvious. I find it interesting that instead of the human population being condemned by one man (God in the Noah's Ark story), Earth and the human population destroyed itself with its own hate and wickedness. While the poem can be seen negatively because of the destruction of the Earth, I feel that the poem ends on a positive note. As the two scientists die, they leave a beautiful world sprawling with the animals they brought with them from Earth with hopes that the future generations of these creatures will not make the same mistakes that humanity made. It is a second chance on another planet for life to prosper. Did anyone else get this feeling as they finished the poem?