susanna part 1

I spent 7 hours yesterday dealing with my sick horse yesterday. So I plan to write more, but am trying to get initial thoughts down.

Susanna as a woman offers the promise of ecstasy to the elders. Because women hold the power of the physical enjoyment of her body. She is beautiful, and therefore she holds power in her beauty. I think the poem compares the power that her physical body holds to the power of music. It is something that cannot be described using words. Wallace Stevens uses poetry to conjure up the feeling of desire and longing in us, the readers. Susanna is pure in her beauty because she does not sin. Perhaps it is her rejection of the elders that demonstrates what great power beauty and sex have over them. They want her even more because she rejects them and this leads them to anger and desire for revenge.

But Susanna, the woman, is pure of heart. And justice comes to her because of that.

More to come later...