Students
Teachers & SchoolsStudents
Teachers & SchoolsSin and Punishment Imagery
The speaker implies early in the poem that he is somehow responsible for his son's death. He says he had "too much hope" for his son, and that this was his "sin" (2). The language of punishment is present elsewhere in the poem as well. A payment is "exacted" from the speaker, and the concluding lines of the poem reflect the speaker's wish not to make the same mistake again (i.e., not liking something too much).