Allusion in Orchard

The phrase “Spare us from loveliness” takes the form and tone of a prayer. This language invokes the tone and style of the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer ubiquitous in Christian religion that asks God repeatedly to “deliver us from evil.” The speaker’s use of this language touches on the religious Puritan undertones found at the beginning of the poem.

The repeated use of “fallen” once again speaks to the Garden of Eden story. Falling hazelnuts parallel to the image of the speaker as she falls to the ground. Also, while the beginning of the poem described the falling pear, here the hazelnuts have already fallen. This suggests the passing of time and a changing of the seasons.

Here, the activity of falling directly mirrors the pear’s falling in the second line, and it draws reference to Adam and Eve’s fall from the Garden of Eden. In this biblical tale, God casts Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden when they give in to temptation and eat a forbidden apple, dooming humanity to live in a world of sin and evil. The repeated references to “falling” in this poem encourage the connection to Adam and Eve’s fall from grace in the Christian tradition.