I disagree with all the other posts I have read so far. I believe they portray the mood of this poem in too optimistic a light. "Venus and the Ark" is not one, but two spoofs. The first spoof has already been thoroughly addressed by my classmates as a criticism of human nature, but the second, more subtle spoof almost isn't a spoof at all.
My interpretation views this poem as a criticism of the Noah and the Ark story itself. Despite wiping out nearly all humanity and starting anew, the world still descended into a dystopian reality ended by thermonuclear war. "Venus and the Ark" goes further than the original story by wiping out man completely and reverting back to the "Garden of Eden" scenario. Despite even this, the poem ends with the beginning of the descent.
As the Ph.D.'s lay dying on "that last morning of death before the first of light" thinking "[t]his is the last of a man like me," the poem is interrupted by an "Until." This extremely important preposition brings the story's optimism in new beginnings to a dramatic end. The "Until" is immediately followed by a description of two fish creatures coming up "from the belly of the sea" and the sound of "the new fruit drop."
The "new fruit" refers to the "old" fruit from the biblical "Garden of Eden" story. Although bearing the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit ultimately leads to the fall of man and eventually to the story of Noah and the nuclear hellfire of the twentieth century. I believe this "new fruit" doesn't signal beginning anew, but the beginning of a cynical dystopian cycle. Venus isn't a second chance; it's the beginning of the third failure.
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