Some readers have noted its likeness to Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" given both poems' religious themes of temptation, sin and redemption by vicarious suffering.

Can one blame a man racked by vicarious suffering for resorting to any remedy, even one that is poisonous to others?

Because of its references to the vicarious sufferings of the servant, many Christians believe this song to be among the Messianic prophecies of Jesus.

The orgy of vicarious suffering awakened in his people the long-suppressed lust in cruelty which, in spite of their intuitive insight into animal nature, was so strong a factor in the third human species.

But sensibility was also thought to paralyze those who had too much of it; they were weakened by constant vicarious suffering.

And she had no answer for the vicarious suffering which linked him to his brother.

Every death benefited someone, enfranchised someone, lifted a burden from someone's shoulders, whether of responsibility, the pain of vicarious suffering or the tyranny of love.

There are parallels with Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner given both poems' religious themes of temptation, sin and redemption by vicarious suffering.

Speaking of his false conversion as a child: "I did not believe, in any true sense, in the divinity or vicarious sufferings of Jesus.

And wit, horseplay, liquor, excitement and hardboiledness overlie the pain of vicarious suffering with and for others.