Poetry & Analysis
Self Forgiveness Poems
Inspirational PoemsConscience and Remorse
“Good-bye,” I said to my conscience—
“Good-bye for aye and aye,”
And I put her hands off harshly,
And turned my face away;
And conscience smitten sorely
Returned not from that day.
But a time came when my spirit
Grew weary of its pace;
And I cried: “Come back, my conscience;
I long to see thy face.”
But conscience cried: “I cannot;
Remorse sits in my place.”
Overview Short Summary
Dunbar turns conscience and remorse into living voices. The speaker pushes conscience away, then later finds that remorse has taken its place.
Core Ideas Main Themes
Conscience, remorse, regret, self-forgiveness, inner honesty, and moral awakening.
Craft Literary Devices
The poem uses personification to make an inner struggle feel like a real conversation. That makes the lesson simple, direct, and memorable.
Enigma
It would be easy to forgive,
If I could but remember;
If I could hear, lost love of mine,
The music of your cruelties,
Shaking to sound the silent skies,
Could voice with them their song divine,
Red with pain’s leaping ember:
It would be easy to forgive,
If I could but remember.
It would be easy to forget,
If I could find lost Sorrow;
If I could kiss her plaintive face,
And break with her her bitter bread,
Could share again her woeful bed,
And know with tears her pale embrace.
Make yesterday, to-morrow:
It would be easy to forget,
If I could find lost Sorrow.
Overview Short Summary
This poem connects forgiveness with memory. The speaker almost wants to remember the old pain clearly because forgetting has made forgiveness strangely difficult.
Core Ideas Main Themes
Forgiveness, forgetting, sorrow, lost love, memory, pain, and emotional confusion.
Reader Connection Why It Fits Forgiveness
For readers looking for poems about forgiving someone who hurt you, this poem captures a real difficulty: sometimes the heart needs to understand the wound before it can release it.
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Overview Short Summary
Rossetti’s poem gives a loved one permission not to live forever inside grief. It is tender, generous, and full of emotional release.
Core Ideas Main Themes
Letting go, grief, memory, forgiveness, love, peace, and release.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The mood is gentle and forgiving. It fits readers searching for forgiveness poems about moving on without guilt.
Song When I Am Dead My Dearest
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
Overview Short Summary
This poem releases the beloved from forced mourning. Its message is quiet: love should not become a prison after loss.
Core Ideas Main Themes
Memory, grief, release, love, peace, and emotional freedom.
Reader Connection Why It Fits Forgiveness
The poem allows remembering and forgetting to exist without blame. That makes it a beautiful letting go forgiveness poem.
Eternity
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sunrise
Overview Short Summary
This very short poem teaches release. It suggests that trying to hold life too tightly can destroy the very joy we want to keep.
Core Ideas Main Themes
Letting go, acceptance, freedom, peace, and emotional release.
Reader Connection Why It Fits Forgiveness
Forgiveness often asks the heart to stop clutching the past. Blake’s tiny poem says that life stays alive when we let it move.
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