When simply saying in her own defence

"The serpent tempted me and I did eat."

So much of paradisal nature, Eve's!

Her daughters ever since prefer to urge

"Adam so starved me I was fain accept

The apple any serpent pushed my way."

What an elaborate theory have we here,

Ingeniously nursed up, pretentiously

Brought forth, pushed forward amid trumpet-blast,

To account for the thawing of an icicle,