Kill Your Balm and Its Odors Bless You
poem 238
Kill Your Balm and Its Odors Bless You - meaning Summary
Self-sacrifice and Release
The speaker urges drastic relinquishment of private comforts and attachments. Using images of balm, jessamine, and a bird, the poem tells someone to expose or destroy what shelters them so those scents or songs might reach others. The tone mixes command and benediction: violent acts are framed as releases that can charm a wider world. The closing lines ask forgiveness and request another’s loyalty after the speaker is gone.
Read Complete AnalysesKill your Balm and its Odors bless you Bare your Jessamine to the storm And she will fling her maddest perfume Haply your Summer night to Charm Stab the Bird that built in your bosom Oh, could you catch her last Refrain Bubble! forgive Some better Bubble! Carol for Him when I am gone!
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