Controlling Idea Forgive Thy Guilt The Pie
... When they commit misdeeds they are beset by a sense of guilt. In those with strong imaginations this guilt may be magnified. ... In the poem "Forgive My Guilt" by Robert P. Tristam Coffin and the personal essay "The Pie" by Gary Soto, children are stricken by guilt after they do something they know is wrong. In "Forgive My Guilt," the adult speaker relates an incident from his childhood in which he is "sure" that he sinned. ... " In other words, he is haunted by this memory, his conscience stricken by an overwelming sense of guilt. ... In "The Pie," the first person narrator also recollents an incident from childhood when he was six years old.