This poem brings up all kinds of questions about aesthetics and morality that are absolutely fascinating. In Browning's "My Last Duchess", there's something seductive in the voice of the narrator that makes his murderous behavior seem charmingly roguish rather than psychotic. The narrator in "Valediction Against Morning" isn't charming at all. He's terrifying.
Susan, I agree with your identification of the sestet, and your assessment that the meter is "jagged", but that feels intentional to me—and it suits this voice well. It would not be as convincing with a smoother prosody. I'd like to hear Kiefer Sutherland read it in his Dark City character, if anyone gets the reference
Anyway, the use of "stuff" is a bland choice but I think the idea is that N won't mention "love" (what "conquers all") due to his pathology.
Mary, it makes me queasy too. I have a two-year-old whose blond ringlets look like a halo when the sun catches them. Why do moral people write in the voices of tyrants, murderers and pedophiles? Is it speculative psychotherapy? Shock value? I hate to use a commercial term like "value", or even something as directed as "purpose", but it's hard for me not to read this and ask "why?".
Which brings me to... Gillie, my qualms aren't about the religious imagery—I'm not even Christian—but the moral dimension. There isn't a significant religious or secular philosophy that approves of the behavior described in the poem. But I think you are centering on the idea that N is conveying, which is something to the effect of, "You were Christ to the sins of my humanity, therefore it is improper to mourn you. Instead, I should thank you for bearing the weight of my iniquities [and maybe absolving them too?]." Or put it this way: if Christ had to die to save the world, weren't his killers doing a very great good?
If I had to answer my own question ("why?"), I would probably argue that the understanding of guilt, transference, psychosis, whatever is going on here, makes it worth reading. I don't know that I'd agree with me though.
Christ, that's enough for me on this one. I'm going to go check on my sleeping son.