While Sexton's poem "Venus and the Ark" definitely bears religious allusions, key sections of it also allude to the social unrest of the 1980s. While several of the blog posts detailed the religious theme, the poem also makes many references to class shift and social themes.

That two male Ph.D.'s (presumably older, white, professorial types) were chosen indicates one class in society. Meanwhile, the "fourteen white rats, fourteen black rats" and their ultimately "integrated forests" indicates the progress which had been made, leading up to the time of Venus. In this sense, the poem is almost historical, describing a period from the 1950s and Cold War America, which grew into a productive, yet entirely new, world. Sure, the story depicts a spoofed flood story, and extraterrestrial Paradise, and an artificial creation, but these religious elements mirror the societal elements of the time.