Adam's Task (John Hollander)

I find this poem by John Hollander to be adorable. I can just imagine Adam, gleeful with his first real job, sitting on a high promontory pointing at passing animals and crying out, "Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted/ Glurd; thou, whitestap".

The names he picks are simple, fun, and childlike. They also (way to go John Hollander) conjure up an image of what animal is being described. A "paw-paw-paw" just has to be some kind of large cat. A "glurd" would be a good name for a water ox.

It's Adam's first task and therefore he finds great joy in it. To be trusted with a task of that importance must have been quite swelling. This poem is a portrait of the first 23 animals and names. One sort of hopes that he maintained his glee for the next million-plus animals and that he never reached the point where he and the task would sink "to primitive" even though we know it must and that he did.

The last line sounds so childlike. The next line might as well be "I'm bored. Can I go now?" I suppose that is the indication that his task is not so new and shiny anymore. That he has lost his glee for his task. Ha! Maybe, Adam (the child) gave up the task for being too big and made God (the adult) name them instead. So we have names not like "glurd" and "grawl", but dull, sensible ones like house fly and blue jay.

Favorite line: "Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted/ glurd"