Merwin: Noah's Raven

[shorebreak186]

I found this poem in my literature book (Noah's Raven by W.S.Merwin) and it intrigued me, because I never really thought about the raven in the Noah story.
But i'm having trouble understanding the poem.

Why shoud I have returned?
My knowledge would not fit into theirs.
I found untouched the desert of the unknown,
....

continued at this link. (http://books.google.ca/books?id=sq7gXQNLv-gC&pg=PA251&lpg=PA251&dq=%22Noah%27s+Raven%22+Merwin&source=bl&ots=Z_TaFbWHSd&sig=ZkEcIpxLSyZFi2hCXB4UVDSkcwM&hl=en&ei=jKesSci2BYzVnQeg-Z24Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result)



-The poems about the raven saying why it did not return
-my understanding is that it is about the unknown

I'm not looking for someone to explain the whole poem to me. I just want like a starting off point to work off of

Any responses would be really helpful

[quasimodo1]

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=8JIveUt8StQC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=Noah%27s+Raven+by+W.S.+Merwin&ots=zyi6uTaQjV&sig=_RJ8evGJ0Q1w_CD4o0_Voyfy3n0

[JBI]

It's an old idea. The poem itself is pretty meh, but the concept is an old one. The idea is that Noah sent the bird off, knowing that if it found land, it would land, and be lost forever, killing off the raven race for good (given that there were only 1 male and 1 female on the arc). The idea that unlike the Dove, the raven would not have come back, pointing to the notion that why should it have? What did it have to gain staying the arc.