<P> J.A. Burrow notes an interesting paradox within the poem in how the Cross is set up to be the way to Salvation: the Cross states that it cannot fall and it must stay strong to fulfill the will of God . However, to fulfill this grace of God, the Cross has to be a critical component in Jesus' death . This puts a whole new light on the actions of Jesus during the Crucifixion . Neither Jesus nor the Cross is given the role of the helpless victim in the poem, but instead both stand firm . The Cross says, Jesus is depicted as the strong conqueror and is made to appear a "heroic German lord, one who dies to save his troops". Instead of accepting crucifixion, he' embraces' the Cross and takes on all the sins of mankind . </P> <P> Rebecca Hinton identifies the resemblance of the poem to early medieval Irish sacramental Penance, with the parallels between the concept of sin, the object of confession, and the role of the confessor . She traces the establishment of the practice of Penance in England from Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690, deriving from the Irish confession philosophy . Within the poem, Hinton reads the dream as a confession of sorts, ending with the narrator invigorated, his "spirit longing to start ." </P> <P> Faith Patten identified' sexual imagery' in the poem between the Cross and the Christ figure, noting in particular lines 39--42, when Christ embraces the Cross after having' unclothed himself' and leapt onto it . This interpretation was expanded upon by John Canuteson, who argued that this embrace is a' logical extension of the implications of the marriage of Christ and the Church', and that it becomes' a kind of marriage consummation' in the poem . Mary Dockray - Miller further argued that this sexual imagery functions to' feminize' the Cross in order for it to mirror the heightened masculinity of the warrior Christ in the poem . </P>

Anglo saxon poem the dream of the rood