The Conundrum of the Workshops

The title reflects the poem’s main theme with a touch of irony. A “conundrum” is a confusing and difficult problem or question that might be impossible to resolve. However, it can also refer to a playful riddle based on a pun (Question: What is the center of gravity? Answer: The letter “V.”). A “workshop” can be any space in which something is created, whether handicrafts or artistic products. Therefore, the conundrum of the workshops is whether what people create is worth creating. More narrowly, as the poem repeatedly puts it: “Is it Art?” This question can be taken as a serious conundrum: Can we ever determine once and for all what constitutes Art? However, the Devil chuckles as he poses it to Cain (Line 8), amused by making humankind take it seriously, like a riddle-maker might be amused if we took the question about the center of gravity seriously. In other words, Kipling suggests that “Is it Art?” only seems to be an important question while, in fact, it hinders creation by weakening the artist’s confidence and drive.

The poem opens with an image of the first dawn in the Garden of Eden, where God has placed Adam, the first man. Adam sits under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and uses a stick to create in the patch of soil “the first rude sketch that the world had seen” (Line 3), the first piece of art created by a human being. This moment of creation brings “joy to his mighty heart” (Line 3), initiating the long history of human pleasure and fulfillment gained from artistic expression. The Devil lurks in the branches of the Tree, however, and sows doubt in Adam’s mind: “It’s pretty, but is it Art?” (Line 4). The Devil is the first art critic to Adam’s first artist, disrupting the pure and innocent joy of making something by raising the question of its aesthetic value. Just like in Genesis 2, when the Devil seduces Eve (and through her also Adam) into tasting the fruit of the Tree in violation of God’s prohibition, here the Devil seduces Adam into doubting the value of his creation.

In response to the Devil’s criticism, Adam calls his wife Eve to join him and reworks his sketch (Line 5). Thus, the first artist also becomes “[t]he first of his race” to care about how others perceive and value his art (Line 6). Eve’s presence suggests that this foundational moment of human self-doubt will not remain only Adam’s problem. In fact, vulnerability to criticism becomes human inheritance as Adam leaves “his lore [what he has learned] to the use of his sons” (Line 7). Genesis 4 describes how Adam’s son Cain murders his own brother Abel because he believes that God regards Abel’s sacrificial offering more favorably than Cain’s. As a result, God marks Cain and condemns him to a life of wondering. In Kipling’s poem, the Devil’s question “Is it Art?” is particularly malicious in the second stanza because it apparently refers to the act of murder. The implication is that self-doubt (the Devil’s lesson to Adam passed on to Adam’s sons) can lead to fratricide (the murder of a brother or someone equally close). Instead of believing in the value of his own offering, Cain compared it to his brother’s, like an artist may value their own art only in comparison to another’s. Rivalry based on evaluative comparison leads to insecurity, jealousy, and even violence. It is with dark sarcasm that the poem calls this inheritance “a glorious gain” (Line 7).

The theme of human discord persists in the third stanza, which refers to the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. The story describes a unified and confident humankind, speaking a common language and building a tower tall enough to touch Heaven, or, as Kipling puts it, “to shiver the sky and wrench the stars apart” (Line 9). God considers them too prideful and confounds their language so they can understand each other no longer. They abandon the Tower and scatter all over the world. In Kipling’s poem, discord is once again caused by the Devil’s effort to undermine human confidence: “It’s striking, but is it Art?” (Line 10). Raising the question of the Tower’s artistic value leads to collaborative purpose being replaced by individualistic disagreement. The stone is “dropped” and the derrick (building crane) stands “idle” (Line 11) as “each man” discusses “the aims of art” in many different languages (Line 12). A community of mutually supportive artists suddenly turns into a gaggle of squabbling critics.

The fourth stanza takes its inspiration from the story about Noah’s Ark in Genesis 6. In the Old Testament, this story precedes the one about the Tower of Babel, but Kipling inverts the order so he can represent God’s anger at humankind, which led to the Deluge, as caused by the discord described in the third stanza. Having lost creative confidence and common purpose, humans keep fighting each other (Line 13) and “jabbering” (Line 14), speaking excitedly but making little sense. Meanwhile, the waters rise and endanger all humankind, but God allows Noah to build a vessel (the Ark) so he can preserve himself and his family, as well as various animals, so they can then repopulate the earth once the waters recede. When the dove Noah has sent to search for land brings back the olive branch signaling that land has reemerged, that is “the dank blank-canvas dawn” (Line 15), it’s a chance for a new beginning. The original dawn in the Garden of Eden, described in Line 1, has led to murder, discord, and destruction. This new dawn offers the possibility of a more creative and confident humankind. However, the Devil’s malignant question persists: “It’s human, but is it Art?” (Line 16).

In the fifth stanza, Kipling comments on the poem’s main theme more explicitly. Self-doubt, artistic or otherwise, is both as ancient as the story about Eden and as fresh as an infant’s “new-cut tooth” (Line 17). Before adulthood, before “his lip-thatch [moustache] grows,” a man feels confident that “he is master of Art and Truth” (Line 18), not doubting the value and meaning of what he creates. But by the end of life, “as the twilight nears” (Line 19), the Devil has seduced him into questioning the value of his very life: “You did it,” you achieved something in your life, “but is it Art?” (Line 20)—did you leave something of lasting value behind?

The sixth stanza consists of a series of intriguing metaphors. “We [the human race] have learned” to turn the Eden Tree into a peg for hanging clerical robes and to enclose our two parents, Adam and Eve, in a rotten egg (Lines 21-22). Both metaphors suggest a loss of something valuable. A confident and innocent faith in the Garden of Eden has turned into religious hierarchy and convention. The descendants of the first couple now “hatch” in spoiled eggs. We have twisted things away from their original purpose, disrupting the order of things so that “the tail must wag the dog, as the horse is drawn by the cart” (Line 23), still to the amusement of the Devil who questions the value of what our faith has become.

The seventh stanza brings the point home, to fancy clubs in Kipling’s London where gentlemen try to create something, just like their father Adam did. There are several references to the first stanza. The London sunset and the artificial “green and gold” of the club rooms (Line 25) contrast the Eden dawn and the natural beauty of the garden’s “green and gold” (Line 1). While Adam creates a scratch in the blessed soil as yet unspoiled by his Fall, his modern descendants scratch in the soil of their own graves (Line 27), and Adam’s innocent “joy” (Line 3) is replaced by their “anguish” (Line 27), as the Devil still taunts. The Devil’s words in Line 28 are identical to his words in Line 4, which adds to the sense of a circular and repetitive nature of the conundrum the poem addresses.

The final stanza presents the conclusion. Humans can never return to Eden, from which “four great rivers flow” (Line 29), as described in Genesis 2, and which is protected by “the sentry” (Line 31), the guard of cherubs with flaming swords (Genesis 3). But if we could sneak back in, we would realize that, for all we have learned in the intervening 20 centuries, at best we know as much “as our father Adam knew” (Line 32). In other words, no amount of human experience makes the question of Art, or any creation, and its value easier to answer. What is Art? What is Truth? What makes life valuable? Not knowing the answers to these questions is at the core of the human condition.