A Stones Throw by Elma Mitchell

Summary
This poem is about men who caught a prostitute and since prostitution is a sin their punishment for her was stoning. When they caught her, they roughed her up but still had their own intentions. They taught they werent doing anything wrong as it wasnt the first time shed felt mens hands greedy over her body. The prostitute who was Mary Magdalene was dead scared because she was assaulted. She knew that her fate had in store for her. But then, Jesus squatted down to her level and wrote something in the dust and looked at her. The men couldnt understand what he wrote until he turned to them. They realized their mistake and walked away; still holding their stones waiting to use day another day given the urge to do so.

Analysis
This poem bears the theme of faith, Christianity and religious beliefs. It hails from the bible John 8:3-11. Where it states The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery, and they made her stand before them all. Teacher, they said to Jesus, 'this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. In our Law Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death. Now, what do you say?' They said this to trap Jesus, so that they could accuse him. But he bent over and wrote on the ground with his finger. As they stood there asking him questions, he straightened up and said to them, 'Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.' Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. When they heard this, they all left, one by one, the older ones first. Jesus was left alone, with the woman still standing there. He straightened up and said to her, 'Where are they? Is there no one left to condemn you?' 'No one, sir,' she answered. 'Well, then,' Jesus said, 'I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again.' In this case Mary Magdalene was prostitute and being so was and still is a sin where the punishment was stoning. Some men found her and captured her. The roughed her up; the poet used the term She'd felt men's hands, Greedy over her body, But ours were virtuous, Of course to state that since prostitution involved men touching her this was no less of a wrong thing to do, this is a sarcasm because they caught her in the act of adultery so she should be used to being handled roughly by men. And if our fingers bruised, her shuddering skin, these were love bites compared, to the hail of kisses of stone, this is a metaphor that contrasts how rough the hands of men were and the stones. The term hail of kisses, is a paradox which implies that the men where showering her body with kisses.

And then-this guru, Preacher, God-merchant, God-knows-what-, which is sarcasm referring to Jesus. He spoke to Mary in the form of writing. Mary and he then turned their eyes to the men which is a repetition and it was believed he asked who is free of sin shall cast the first stone and that's when their eyes were on themselves and they saw that they weren't as sinless as they had thought and so no stone was thrown at her. This wasnt the end of their mission as they left with their stones waiting for another day to use them if given the urge, but thanks to what Jesus said, they realize they had sin as well so who were they to judge.