The speaker has decided to stop living with regret and pain. He describes his soul as whimpering, soaked in tears, and sour from years of suffering, then urges it out into the light. Instead of dwelling on the past, he wants it to rest the way a scrap of sail drifts in wind, a fishing net dries on sand, or a dog sprawls in the heat. The mood is one of exhausted relief: after long unhappiness, he chooses stillness and warmth over memory and self-torment. The short similes make peace feel physical—sun on skin, looseness in the body—until the soul is drowsy, quiet, and finally free of thinking about what went before.
Hill-Top Hours — Summary
I am through with regret. No more shall I kennel with pain. I have called to this whimpering soul, This soul that is sodden with tears And sour with the reek of the years! And now we shall glory in light! Like a tatter of sail in the wind, Like a tangle of net on the sand, Like a hound stretched out in the heat, My soul shall lie in the sun, And be drowsy with peace, And not think of the past!