Frank Horne’s speaker tells someone—B—that her sexual surrender to another man has released him. For a long time, he says, he kept himself chained out of devotion to her. When she finally lowered her “proud flag” and gave herself to someone else, his wait ended. The release is not gentle: he describes a body screaming in a “silver crash of passion,” climbing into “white disaster.” He feels both freed and taken hostage by desire, yet he calls it joy. The poem ends with him weeping gladly at the “dawn-tipped shrine” of many lovers’ bodies. The mood is feverish, wounded, and strangely grateful—a mix of bitterness, ecstasy, and relief.
Letters Found Near a Suicide: To B---- — Summary
You have freed me-- In opening wide the doors Of flesh You have freed me Of the binding leash. I have climbed the heights Of white disaster My body screaming In the silver crash of passion ... Before you gave yourself To him I had chained myself For you. But when at last You lowered your proud flag In surrender complete You gave me too, as hostage-- And I have wept my joy At the dawn-tipped shrine Of many breasts.