9 October 2026

Interestingly enough, it was a vision of the creation which inspired Edwin Muir to write poetry. And in his poetry, these cosmic themes are expressed deeply – the Creation, the Fall, Eden, the Exile, the Return.

Of all his poems, ‘The Horses’ must be his greatest. It’s the aftermath of the nuclear holocaust. The radios are dumb. The tractors lie about the filed like ’dank sea-monsters’.

The silent waiting is broken by the sound of the horses returning to plough the earth. They had been exiled too. Banished from the earth. Sold for new tractors.

We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,

Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent

By an old command to find our whereabouts

And that long-lost archaic companionship.

‘That long-lost archaic companionship’ was to be found in the Garden of Eden where God had put man ‘to till it and keep it’. Man lives with the creatures which God has made. He is given the privilege of naming them. Afterall, they have been made to be his companions.

This is the archaic companionship which is found in the Garden of Eden. This was the paradise which Godmade for Adam and Eve. But the companionship was lost when they were banished for their disobedience and their paradise was lost!