A Traumatic Experience“My dog ​​died five days without a grave...” (line 1)When Richard Wilbur was ten years old, a very traumatic thing happened when he lost his dog. This event eventually led him to write the poem “Forgiveness,” based on that event. In this poem he shows us that death is nothing to be afraid of and that we must learn to forgive ourselves for our previous mistakes. “Forgiveness” is about a little boy (the person) whose dog dies when the boy is ten. old. The dead dog has been ignored by the boy for five days, and the boy feels guilty about it. This sense of guilt follows the boy as he grows up and in the poem he confesses that he still has nightmares about that sad moment in his life. These nightmares cause the character to fear and cry for his old dog. The poem ends with the character telling us that he dreamed that you can always be forgiven for your past, no matter how long ago it was. He wonders whether “this was a false dream or an honest one” (line 23), that is, whether it is true or whether it is just something he imagined in a dream. In any case, he asks death for forgiveness, as if he were a real person, and mourns his dead dog, trying to make up for when he was ten. I believe that in this poem, the speaker (or character) is Richard Wilbur himself. I think this because he uses the first person pronouns “I” and “my” several times. While there is no evidence that the character is actually Wilbur, it appears that he wrote this poem from personal experience. Wilbur's poem shows us that he still remembers the death of his pet and that the memory still haunts him. He writes this poem to anyone who wants to listen to it, to try to clear his conscience and take a huge weight off his shoulders. In the title, Wilbur gives us a pretty good clue… middle of paper… and his dead body before it receives a formal resting place. The fifth stanza contains phrases such as "carnal sun", "hymn of the flies", and "death growing in his lively eyes" to describe the dog Wilbur saw in his dreams. These phrases help show us the scary image and help us understand why it was a nightmare. Even the words “hymn of the flies” have a deeper meaning. Normally a hymn is sung at a funeral and in the poem the dog is dead. For the character, the buzzing of flies sounds like a sad hymn. In this poem, Wilbur shows that we must mourn death properly, otherwise it will come back and haunt us. It also shows that you need to forgive yourself for past mistakes, no matter how long ago. I really liked this poem, even though it was hard to understand at first. Once I understood the overall purpose of the poem, I was able to dive deeper to grasp its hidden meanings.