Review on Forgive My Guilt

Not always sure what things called sins may be, I am sure of one sin I have done.

It was years ago, and I was a boy, I lay in the frostflowers with a gun, The air ran blue as the flowers, I held my breath, Two birds on golden legs slim as dream things Ran like quicksilver on the golden sand, My gun went off, they ran with broken wings Into the sea, I ran to fetch them in, But they swam with their heads high out to sea, They cried like two sorrowful high flutes, With jagged ivory bones where wings should be. For days I heard them when I walked that headland Crying out to their kind in the blue, The other plovers were going over south On silver wings leaving these broken two. The cries went out one day; but I still hear them Over all the sounds of sorrow in war or peace I ever have heard, time cannot drown them, Those slender flutes of sorrow never cease. Two airy things forever denied the air! I never knew how their lives at last were spilt, But I have hoped for years all that is wild, Airy, and beautiful will forgive my guilt

~Robert P. Tristram Coffin

In forgive my guilt, a great deal of guilt and regret is being portrayed. An adult recaps a time in his childhood when he shot two birds and suffered great remorse. As a little boy is seen contemplating on killing the bird without knowing the cause of his actions or the consequences he will face. He goes ahead and shots the bird in its wings causing them not to spread their wings and soar into the sky.For many days the birds were heard crying from a distance in pain. They begin to show great sadness and grief. He tried to save the birds but to no avail, they perished. He feels a huge heap on guilt and burden on his shoulders as he continues to hear the sound of the birds although they were dead. The poets guilt took control of him and he continued by begging and pleading every living creature that is airy and beautiful and the readers of his poem to forgive his guilt.