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    Analysis of Forgive My Guilt

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    Wasi Islam
    The poem "Forgive My Guilt" expresses the poet's regret over shooting two birds when he was a boy. As a youth, he lay in wait with his gun and shot two beautiful golden birds. Though their wings were broken, they refused to surrender and swam away with heads held high. For days afterward, the poet continued to hear their cries of pain and sorrow. The memory of their suffering has haunted him through the years. He asks nature to forgive his sin against the slender flutes of sorrow.

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    Analysis of Forgive My Guilt

    Uploaded by

    Wasi Islam
    144 views2 pages
    The poem "Forgive My Guilt" expresses the poet's regret over shooting two birds when he was a boy. As a youth, he lay in wait with his gun and shot two beautiful golden birds. Though their wings were broken, they refused to surrender and swam away with heads held high. For days afterward, the poet continued to hear their cries of pain and sorrow. The memory of their suffering has haunted him through the years. He asks nature to forgive his sin against the slender flutes of sorrow.

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    135348877 Analysis of Forgive My Guilt

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    The poem "Forgive My Guilt" expresses the poet's regret over shooting two birds when he was a boy. As a youth, he lay in wait with his gun and shot two beautiful golden birds. Though their wings were broken, they refused to surrender and swam away with heads held high. For days afterward, the poet continued to hear their cries of pain and sorrow. The memory of their suffering has haunted him through the years. He asks nature to forgive his sin against the slender flutes of sorrow.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    144 views2 pages

    Analysis of Forgive My Guilt

    Uploaded by

    Wasi Islam
    The poem "Forgive My Guilt" expresses the poet's regret over shooting two birds when he was a boy. As a youth, he lay in wait with his gun and shot two beautiful golden birds. Though their wings were broken, they refused to surrender and swam away with heads held high. For days afterward, the poet continued to hear their cries of pain and sorrow. The memory of their suffering has haunted him through the years. He asks nature to forgive his sin against the slender flutes of sorrow.

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    Analysis of “Forgive My Guilt” by Robert P.

    Tristram Coffin
    The poem “Forgive My Guilt” by Robert P. Tristram Coffin has a religious framework and diction
    as the poet committed a sin and is asking for forgiveness. The title gives the idea that the poem may be
    a prayer. The theme is one of regret. It has a remorseful tone and a sad, solemn mood. In the poem, a
    man regrets shooting two birds in his youth. They did not die immediately but suffered for a long time.

    In the first line, the poet notes that he does not know the true meaning or definition of a sin
    neither the actions which qualify as sins. However, he is sure that one of his actions as a boy qualified as
    a sin.

    In the fourth line, an image is painted of the boy lying with his gun among the frostflowers as he
    prepares to shoot the birds. There is a simile in the fifth line, “the air ran as blue as the flowers”
    comparing the blueness of the air to that of the flowers. The clouds also moved and the sky appeared to
    be running. This is a personification. There a simile in the following line: “slim as dream things”. The
    persona then held his breath showing that he felt the suspense of the moment. He wanted the shot to
    be precise and waited for the moment to come.

    In line six, the word “golden” is used to accentuate and exaggerate the beauty of the birds. They
    were “slim as dream things”. This means that they were dainty like something only imaginable in a
    dream. It did not seem as though it could be real. In the next line, the movement of the birds are
    compared to quicksilver. They ran from the persona extremely quickly. Like quicksilver, they could not
    be caught or touched. It also suggests that the birds were extremely beautiful. Again, the word “golden”
    is used to accentuate beauty. However, it was referring to the sand. From lines four to seven, there is a
    good example of visual imagery. The poet effectively used comparisons to enable an accurate picture of
    the scene to be painted in the reader’s mind.

    In line eight, the poet shot the birds and they fell. Their wings were broken and, as a result, they
    could not fly. However, they refused to surrender to the poet and ran into the sea. Even as he followed
    them, they swam away. Their dignity was shown in the words, “heads high out to sea”. There is another
    simile in line eleven. It compares the bird to sorrowful high flutes. Flutes make a shrill, high-pitched
    sound. The birds made such a sound with a mournful air. This is an example of aural imagery.

    In the next line, it states that the birds’ bones in their wings were exposed as their ivory colour
    could be seen. Ivory is priceless and is said to be beautiful. These bones were “jagged” and out of place.
    The poet continued to hear their cries even days after. It states that he heard them while walking the
    headland. This lets us know that the setting is on a coast. The birds were crying out their “kind in the
    blue”. They were asking for help and, again, the blue refers to the sky. The other plovers (the kind of
    birds) were travelling south for the winter leaving these two behind. The word “silver” is used to
    describe the other plovers’ wings. This is used like “golden” previously to emphasize the birds’ beauty.

    Even though the birds eventually died, the poet still heard their cries in his mind. His regret was
    so strong that he could not erase the sounds of their grief from his mind even through other periods of
    turmoil or even peace. It is stated that time cannot drown them. This means that he will be forever sorry
    for his sin. In line twenty, the word “slender” is used as a pun. The birds are called slender flutes of
    sorrow again. “Slender” literally means that they are small in size. It also means that their sound
    sounded like it came from a slender (narrow) flute. Therefore, the sound would have been high-pitched.

    In line twenty-one, the birds are referred to as airy things as they are meant to fly and spend
    time in the air. They were “denied” the air. This word is used to show that the birds were restricted from
    the privilege of flying because of the poet’s deed. The poet never found out how they finally died,
    referred to by the word “split”.

    There are two instances of contrast in this poem. Firstly, the cowardice of the boy (lying among
    the flowers with a gun) is contrasted with the pride and dignity of the plovers. Even when they were
    injured, they swam away with their heads held high. The beauty of the uninjured birds is also contrasted
    with the cries and “jagged ivory bones” of the injured birds.

    The poet concludes by using a personification- asking nature to forgive him. He said that he
    hoped for years that all other wild, airy, beautiful things like the plovers would forgive him.

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