Susanna and Peter Quince at the Clavier

"Music is feeling, then, not sound;"

I like Wallace Stevens already, and I agree whole-heartedly. If feeling is music, music is love. But is music like the lust of the elders for Susanna? I hope not, because their lust was wholly impure. Or maybe different feelings are synonymous with different emotions. Let's say the elder's lust is like country music. That I can handle.

Green evening vs. red-eyed elders...who felt:

"The basses of their beings throb
In witching chords, and their thin blood
Pulse pizzicati of Hosanna."

I didn't know the meaning of "pizzicati" off the top of my head, but Merriam-Webster says it's the plural form of "a note or passage played by plucking strings." As for "Hosanna," it seems to be some sort of cry for salvation. These definitions actually obscure the passage even more for me. Then there's "witching chords," which perhaps suggest some sort of spell Susanna has put on the elders. The elders in the story of Susanna are full of lust, and somehow they think raping Susanna is their salvation?

"In the green water..."

Color again. Green is good. Susanna is in her bath. Stevens is filling in the lacuna here. Susanna is having a spiritual moment in her bath. She reflects upon past emotions (or "devotions"). And then, the music breaks down.

"A cymbal crashed,
Amid roaring horns."

This is the elders crashing Susanna's spiritual moment — ruining her perfect melody. "Roaring horns;" this must be a devilish metaphor for the elders.

"Soon, with a noise like tambourines,
Came her attendant Byzantines."

The tambourines add a lighter, perhaps salvational, mood to the melody. Her attendants are semi-coming to the rescue, but the events are still hectic. The attendants don't ask Susanna what's wrong; they whisper to one another.

"And as they whispered, the refrain
Was like a willow swept by rain."

I'm trying to figure out the willow metaphor, but maybe all it's referring to is the sound of rain falling on a willow tree. The attendants shine their lamps on Susanna and the elders...

"And then, the simpering Byzantines
Fled, with a noise like tambourines."

Now this is interesting. "With a noise like tambourines," is exactly how the attendants' arrival was described. Entrances and exits, they're like tambourines? The elders' exit is shameful, and they wish it was silent but it still causes a ruckus.

"Beauty is momentary in the mind —
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.

The body dies; the body's beauty lives."

Interesting concept. Most people would say the concept of beauty is the other way around. Isn't everyone a judge of beauty as they perceive it in their minds? Apparently not. Maybe God is the ultimate judge, and we just guess.

"So evenings die, in their green going,"

Green again, and again green evenings. Good things don't last, and neither does beauty...in the mind.

"A wave, interminably flowing."

This makes me think of the flow of a musical wave.

"Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping."

"White elders," a new color. Neutral, perhaps? They couldn't quite be saved and brought to the green side, but at least they aren't red anymore. I'm not sure what this could imply: that if the elders had their way with Susanna, they would be moved further to good? I somehow doubt it; I'm probably way off. Now that I think about it, Susanna's music is what escaped from the elders, so maybe this is referring more to Susanna's fate.

"Now, in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrament of praise."

The immortal thing referred to is Susanna's music, which lives on in the Biblical story if nothing else. She preserved the beauty of her flesh by not succumbing to the elders, so the beauty of her pure body lives on immortally. She's an example for all of us.

Consider this to be my rudimentary analysis. I like the poem a lot more now that I've read Susanna and looked at it more closely. I like the music and color metaphors especially; music and the color green are two of my favorite things. Going back to the first stanza of the poem, it seems to start as a love poem — or perhaps a lust poem. Stevens is possibly using Susanna's story as metaphorical praise. I would speculate further into the relationship of the title to the poem, but I don't know enough details about the character of Peter Quince. How this relates to our overall class discussion remains uncertain to me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.