A Friend - “The Fall of Man”
Satan responds to Eve, “I, a friend. And for thy good is the coming/I hither sought./Of all the fruit that ye see hang/In Paradise, why eat ye nought.” It is ironic for Satan to announce himself as Eve’s friend, yet he is orchestrating her fall. Satan cunningly plans to undermine God through His handiwork (Eve) who he (Satan) intends to lure to sin.
The Irony of “Repent My Work” - “The Building of the Ark”
God states, “ But since they make me to repent /My work I wrought so well and true/Without cease will not assent,/But ever is bound more bale to brew.” God’s repentance is ironic because he formed a world which he projected to be blissful. The ironic repentance heightens God’s disenchantment with the pervasive depravity which follows ‘the fall of a man.’ Consequently, God is obliged to sanction the demolition of His conceptions through floods.
