SOURCE: "Viereck's 'Don't Look Now but Mary Is Everybody,'" Explicator, Vol. XX, No. 4, December, 1961, item 30.

In the following essay, Benton offers a close examination of the literary parodies and theological themes in Viereck's poem, "Don't Look Now but Mary Is Everybody. "

Viereck's poem ("Don't Look Now But Mary Is Everybody"), one of a series of nine poems called "New York," communicates on three levels of meaning simultaneously. These three levels are: (1) the historical level, (2) the mock genotypic level, and (3) the theological level.

The historical level tells a story that one can read almost everyday in the tabloids. Mary, a private secretary, having become bored with her boss's kisses, seduced an inexperienced youth and fled with him aboard her employer's yacht which she stole to embark on a pleasure cruise with her new lover, expecting to lead a life of perfect freedom and bliss. However, her employer overtook...