This poem reflects an emotion that all of us as humans feel sooner or later in life. In the case of Adam and Eve, it reflects not just the physical journey away from Eden after banishment, but also the emotional and mental journey. Their “old-fashioned house” is Eden, as suggested in the poem, and it is also their mental state of not knowing anything. They are surrounded by perfection, and therefore never are aware of mortality, the bad, or the good. They are ‘unsuspecting’ the perfection of their abode, because they don’t have the knowledge to compare it to anything else. By the time they are banished from Eden, they’ve already left in a sense. They are aware of themselves, aware of their nakedness and their mortality. They ignorantly and innocently left Eden, and even if they tried to come back, it would never be the same. They can try to return to their innocence but ‘discover it no more’, realizing that they cannot un-know anything. They will always be aware of their mortality and the bad along with the good.
Going to college is this same experience in a way. Growing up for most of my life in the upper-middle-class Bethany with the nuclear family, I definitely lived in a form of Eden. I found the perfect comfort of my home for many years. I am opening a new chapter in my life now, pursuing colleges and excited to step away from the nest and leave home, go off and do my hopes and dreams. I’m excited to leave right now, and would like to think that college is going to be this wonderful perfect experience that I will make all my own decisions. But the logical part of me knows that that isn’t how the world works. I know that I am going to crave that feeling of comfort that I find in my ‘old-fashioned house’ or my own Garden of Eden. But the poem makes ‘driving away’ seem like such a bad thing, as if I’ll never be truly happy and comforted once I leave. At least, that’s the vibe I get from reading this poem (It is Emily Dickinson, after all). I don’t think I’ll be completely miserable once I leave my ‘old-fashioned house’ for the big world of college. I think I will find new comforts and new happiness. I don’t think I’ll ever see my home the same way again, or feel the same comforts again. I accept the fact that all of that is changing in life. But I don’t want to believe that all hope is lost. Maybe I’m naïve, but I’m hopeful.
I’m not afraid of returning. I know I will and I accept that it won’t be the same exact feeling, but I’m not convinced yet that the feeling I get from being there. If I were afraid of anything, it would be that it would be just gone. Even if everything has changed when I return, I can still bring back my memories. Of course the feelings will be different if not faded, but they’ll be there. That’s the most important thing. The next step will be creating my own house, with my own comforts, new and old. I have to find my own Eden, because I can never go back.
