Elma Mitchell

We shouted out

‘We’ve got her! Here she is!

It’s her all right ‘.

We caught her.

There she was –

A decent-looking woman, you’d have said,

(They often are)

Beautiful, but dead scared,

Tousled – we roughed her up

A little, nothing much

And not the first time

By any means

She’d felt men’s hands

Greedy over her body –

But ours were virtuous,

Of course.

And if our fingers bruised

Her shuddering skin,

These were love-bites, compared

To the hail of kisses of stone,

The last assault

And battery, frigid rape,

To come

Of right.

For justice must be done

Specially when

It tastes so good.

And then – this guru,

Preacher, God-merchant, God-knows-what –

Spoilt the whole thing,

Speaking to her

(Should never speak to them)

Squatting on the ground – her level,

Writing in the dust

Something we couldn’t read.

And saw in her

Something we couldn’t see

At least until

He turned his eyes on us,

Her eyes on us,

Our eyes upon ourselves.

We walked away

Still holding stones

That we may throw

Another day

Given the urge.

Summary

The poem alludes to the story of Mary Magdalene in the Bible (John 8:3-11), and highlights the themes of religion, violence, gender bias, and hypocrisy. The persona addresses the unknown audience who he either wants to convince or shares his point of view. He appears to be a misogynist as he objectifies the woman who is the subject of the poem and the victim of the abuse of the persona. The persona stereotypes the woman as a harlot and considers the assault of the woman to be righteous. The recount of the acts of violence against the woman is lined with self-righteousness, happiness, and sexual overtones. The people ‘rough her up,’ and the persona notes callously that she had felt men’s hands greedy over her body before.

It is however ironic that the assault on the woman is more virtuous than the woman herself or any man with whom she had been with. Nevertheless, as the persona and

presumably a group of others in the village prepare to place ‘justice’ on this woman through stoning her to death, a guru/preacher (Jesus) ‘spoils their fun’ by speaking to the woman. Unlike the persona, he sees the humanity within the woman and therefore, they cannot be the judge of the woman’s virtue. Instead, the guru allows the woman to judge the crowd, and this triggers an introspection in the surrounding crowd. The crowd leaves with their stones and their judgment and hope to throw these stones another day.

Tone

Nonchalant,

Callous and

Condescending.

Mood

Violent.

Analysis

“We shouted out, ‘We’ve got her! Here she is! It’s her all right ‘. We caught her.”

The persona begins with the use of the pronoun ‘we.’ This shows that the persona is not alone in his judgement. Additionally, it shows that there is a shared accountability for the actions of the crowd. The following lines are punctuated with exclamation points and reflect the crowd’s excitement. ‘We’ve got her’ shows the triumph of the women who has evaded them for a while. ‘Here she is’ suggests that they are putting the woman on display for all to see. ‘It’s her all right’ and ‘we caught her’ echo that triumph in capturing the woman.

“A decent-looking woman, you’d have said, (They often are)”

The persona evidently sees the woman as physically attractive but uses the phrase ‘you’d have said’ because he does not want to admit that he finds her attractive. He continues to say ‘they often are’ showing that he simply classifies her as part of a group rather than as an individual. She is made to be only a stereotype.

“Beautiful, but dead scared,”

The persona again reaffirms the fact that the woman looks beautiful even though she is clearly deathly afraid.

“Tousled – we roughed her up A little, nothing much”

In this line, the word tousled suggests that her clothing or her hair is ruffled, as though playing around. The persona goes on to say that they ‘roughed her up a little, nothing much’, which suggests that they did not use excessive force in capturing her. But this leaves the reader to question the veracity of this story.

“And not the first time By any means She’d felt men’s hands Greedy over her body – “

These lines suggest that the men welcomed the opportunity to let their hands roam around the woman’s body. The persona also suggests that it was not the first time something like this had happened to her, so the woman would not be alarmed or ashamed. This also implies that she was a prostitute, or an adulteress given to such promiscuity. ‘Greedy’ suggests a violent ravaging of the woman’s body by these men who hope to satisfy a hunger by molesting this scared woman. They likely had previous desires to touch her but had neither the courage nor the opportunity before.

“But ours were virtuous, Of course.”

The persona implies that they are honorable in probing her body with their hands and are above reproach for doing so. He tries to distance himself from those men with whom she fornicates. This is ironic in that the persona suggests that he and those with him are ‘virtuous’ in fondling this woman’s body, although they are doing the same thing as the men she ‘sins’ with. This, he believes justifies his stubborn assertion of self-righteousness and as such stresses the irony of the situation, since he is no different from those he tries to separate himself from.

“And if our fingers bruised Her shuddering skin, These were love-bites, compared To the hail of kisses of stone,”

The persona uses ‘if’ to alleviate their cruelty. It is obvious that they bruised her skin because she shuddered in fear. The persona introduces more erotic implications when he compares the bruises to ‘love-bites’ or a bite made during intercourse that is meant to be pleasurable yet painful. He attempts to alleviate their poor treatment of the woman by saying that there was far worse in store for her as she would endure ‘the hail of kisses of stone.’ By saying that the hail of stone would be like kisses, he introduces the idea that this violent execution of ‘justice’ would be pleasurable.

“The last assault and battery, frigid rape, to come of right.”

The persona mentions the final punishment- like the final dish of a meal (assault and battery)- to be given to the woman- ‘frigid rape.’ This is an oxymoron because the speaker suggests that the woman will be sexually assaulted, but not penetrated as in an actual rape. The phrase expresses the inability to consummate the physical act of a sexual assault, as it will be her corpse being violated. This is ‘justice’ to the persona as it connects to the way that he thinks the woman lived her life as an object for the sheer use and disposal of men.

“For justice must be done specially when it tastes so good.”

This line shows the self-righteousness of the persona. These lines clarifies that this is simply providing pleasure for the persona, who neither values the life of the woman nor the idea of true justice. The woman has broken no laws as such and yet one questions on whose authority are the men delivering punishment. This extrajudicial punishment is the pleasure of the persona who notes that “…it tastes so good.” They relish in the brutal assault and violation of this woman. This delight in her misfortune continues this metaphor of a meal to satisfy the appetites of these power-hungry, misogynistic men.

“And then – this guru, Preacher, God-merchant, God-knows-what -Spoilt the whole thing,”

The persona’s tone one of contempt because the guru interrupts his self-righteous masochistic excitement. He gives this newcomer many names and the reader see that he is visibly upset by this intervention. He calls him a guru, because he appears to be well-versed in matters relates to God, philosophy, and the gospel. He also calls him a God-merchant, implying the man’s trade in things relating to God. The poet incorporates the use of the phrase ‘God-knows-what,’ as it denotes the persona’s frustration with this man and his inability to confine him to a single category; but, it also indicates the fact that God does know the identity of this man even if no one in the crowd does.

“Speaking to her (Should never speak to them) Squatting on the ground – her level,”

The man speaks to the woman who they want to persecute. But the persona sees this in a negative way because he discriminates against this woman. He alludes to her being a prostitute or adulteress and this makes her unworthy of any human decency. The man squats between the mob and the woman and this puts him in harm’s way. He stoops to her level both physically and metaphorically and this shows that he is not like the crowd but that he is not critical of the woman. The poet shows that the Guru does not see himself as morally or socially superior to her. Unlike the crowd, he sees her as a human being and not an

object of immorality and ridicule. The way that the persona says ‘her level’ gives the impression of disgust and prejudice.

“Writing in the dust Something we couldn’t read.”

This line has possible connotations. What he wrote could either be a foreign language, or something that the crowd could not understand because they were narrowminded, or it could be simply illegible. Nonetheless, the writing on the ground could have been intended to show the crowd that they lacked judgement in their condemnation or persecution of another human being by writing in the

dust.

“And saw in her something we couldn’t see at least until he turned his eyes on us, her eyes on us, our eyes upon ourselves.”

The man sees something in the woman that the persona and the mob could not see in her. However, it became obvious once the man looked at the crowd, and the woman looked at them as well. In turn, they began to look at themselves. The allusion to three eyes has a biblical connotation as it represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (The Trinity). The men in the crowd had no moral compass and yet they seek to judge the woman. They had descended to such a level where nothing morally right had been achieved. No words were said, but the crowd understood.

“We walked away still holding stones that we may throw another day given the urge.”

The crowd leaves, feeling dejected and unable to satisfy their craving for brutality and violence. However, they still have their stones in hand which shows that they will find another way to judge others. They will do the same again ‘given the urge.’ The entire poem is an allusion:

The poet alludes to the story in the Gospel of John 8: 3-11. In the Bible story a woman is accused of adultery and is brought before Jesus because according to Mosaic Law, she should be stoned to death. Jesus states the famous lines, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” Her accusers scatter. Jesus tells the woman he does not condemn her and to go and refrain from sinning.

Literary Devices

Sarcasm:

The persona is sarcastic as he suggests that the lady was in fact not decent looking.

Personification

A kiss should be pleasant, but this proves to be painful for the woman as it is a kiss from stones.

Pun

The title of the poem is a pun as a stone’s throw is a Caribbean expression that means that it is within close distance. At the same time, the title highlights the content of the poem. It is a figurative stoning, or judging, of a woman.

Allusion (Biblical)

The content of the poem is like Mary Magdalene in in John 8 v 5-7.

Contrast

Lines 13-15

The contrast lies in the men believing that they were morally upright than the woman and so they were “holding stones.” But if the woman had committed a sin as they would suggest, then they too were committing the sin of judging others and inflicting harm on their neighbour.

Irony

It is ironic that men with ‘virtuous’ hands should have pure thoughts, but these men do not have virtuous hearts because they are willing to stone or hurt the defenseless woman. Despite the virtuous hands, there are images of cruelty, such as ‘bruised’, ‘kisses of stone’, ‘battery’ and ‘frigid rape’.

Tone

Mixed

Happy

Sarcastic,

Scornful.

Themes:

Discrimination

Religion

Appearance vs Reality

Hypocrisy

Oppression

Power and Powerlessness