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Unread 11-20-2001, 09:36 AM
A. E. Stallings A. E. Stallings is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Athens, Greece
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Susan, I like your interpretation of the themes and how they braid together.

The Saul of the last stanza is almost certainly not the victim, however, but an onlooker whose guilt is that he does nothing to stop the crime. (The crime so many committed in World War 2, for instance.) This is made clear from the biblical allusion, the story in Acts which the title and the name Saul handily points us to. In fact, except for a few seemingly-modern details, the last stanza may well simply be a retelling of the story, or an up-dating, rather than merely an allusion.

They go to arm themselves at the dry-stone wall,

(That is, they gather stones from it--the stones are loose--for the stoning. Actually, Stephen is the patron saint of stone masons!)

Having flung down their wet and salty garments
At the feet of a young man whose name is Saul.

As the verse from Acts mentions, Saul actually keeps the garments of those who stoned Stephen.
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