Venus and the Ark, Erik Brewer

Question 3

A spoof is an interesting word to use to describe this poem because it doesn't strike the reader as a spoof directly until the end. My interpretation is that Sexton's poem is a spoof on creationism. The motivation to create a spoof usually lies in some sort of fallacy in what the writer is trying to parody. Through this thinking it can be inferred that Anne Sexton does not believe in creationism and wrote her poem in order to portray her perspective of its ridiculousness. The first three stanzas depict how the world ended and why it was necessary for the two Ph.D.'s to relocate in order to start new life on a planet. The title "Venus and the Ark" further proves that point because Sexton uses the missile, a much more applicable vehicle in modern day as opposed to an ark, in order to carry their civilization to safety. The line that points most to Sexton's spoof is "two fish creatures stop on spangled legs and crawl from the belly of the sea" because the two fish creatures are evolving into the life that will inhabit the new planet much like Christian creationism said that Adam and Eve did on Earth.