"Eve"

Eve

Close to the gates of Paradise I flee; 

The night is hot and serpents leave their beds, 

And slide along the dark, crooking their heads, ― 

My God, my God, open the gates to me! 

My eyes are burning so I cannot see; 

My feet are bleeding and I suffer pain; 

Let me come in on the cool grass again― 

My God, my God, open the gates to me! 

I ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, 

And was cast out into the barren drouth; 

And since―the awful taste within my mouth! 

My God, my God, open the gates to me! 

Am I shut out for all eternity? 

I do repent me of my one black sin, 

With prayers and tears of blood. . . . Let me come in! 

My God, my God, open the gates to me! 

Let me come in where birds and flowers be; 

Let me once more lie naked in the grass 

That trembles when the long wind-ripples pass! 

Lord God, Lord God, open the gates to me! 

"Eve" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).