When I think of musical Biblical characters, I tend to think of David. I do not think Susanna. I hadn't read Susanna till now, though, so I never think Susanna. In the religious studies classes I've taken, we never dealt with deutero-canonical works. I'm Catholic, so we have them in our Bibles, but we don't read any of our Bibles, so that doesn't matter. For some reason, Wallace Stevens thinks Susanna.
He compares the way he feels to the way the elders felt toward Susanna. Then he retells the story--but only so far. He stops abruptly just before the elders attempt to seduce and blackmail Susanna. It seems to me as if the narrator of the poem is about to commit such acts as those, but he tries to cover up his intentions.
I wonder if God ever sent a Daniel to stop Wallace Stevens.
