"Of Paul and Silas it is said"

By Emily Dickinson
[Analysis]
Of Paul and Silas it is said [1]
There were in Prison laid [2]
But when they went to take them out [3]
They were not there instead. [4]
Security the same insures [5]
To our assaulted Minds -- [6]
The staple must be optional [7]
That an Immortal binds. [8]
Poem 1166 [F1206]
"Of Paul and Silas it is said"
Analysis by David Preest
[Poem]
The story of the liberation of Paul and Silas means that we also have the 'Security' that liberation is a possibility for us when our Minds
are assaulted, for the staple by which an omnipotent Immortal God has fixed us in some trouble must also be removable if he should so
choose.
This interpretation supplies 'the story of Paul and Silas' as the subject of 'insures' in line 5. Emily seems to have written the poem without
consulting her Bible. It was 'the apostles' who on an earlier occasion were not found when the officers visited them in prison (Acts 5:18-23).
Paul and Silas were still in the prison, though unfettered, when the jailer woke to find the prison doors wide open (Acts 16:23-40).
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