At 12:12 PM 10/15/2006, you wrote:
Mike:
There are Biblical allusions in this that make it interesting. One can't mistake the "hem of the garment" reference. A lady with an issue of blood couldn't get close enough to Christ to get his attention but she got close enough to tough the hem of his garment. She thought, if only I can touch the hem of his garment I will be healed, and she was. Christ felt power go out from him and turned to ask who it was that touched him. Merwin inverts the action. It is the hem of the garment that is seeking to touch Merwin.
So we back up and think of the rain and think of the Biblical reference in which the rain "falls on the just and the unjust alike." It is a blessing to everyone regardless of how good they are.
The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ' etc. etc.
Lazing around on a SunnyDay, p
_________________ [insert pithy quote here] Paul Stone pas@xxxxxxxx Leamington, ON. Canada
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