to shame something out of someone

Question

What does "to shame something out of someone" mean? Specially in this sentence by Walt Whitman:

the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.

Does it mean the look of the bay mare shames him, because he realizes that how much silliness he has?

The full stanza:

I believe in those wing’d purposes,
  
  And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me,
  
  And consider green and violet and the tufted crown intentional,
  
  And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something
  else,
  
  And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty
  well to me,
  
  And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.

lumbrjak · Answer

The beauty of poetry is that there is no single meaning or interpretation that can be derived from a any line, phrase, verse or stanza, that will be shared or agreed upon between all of the individuals who receive those words. And this does not make any of the manifold potential interpretations incorrect. Some may be less common, some may be widely shared, but each interpretation is genuine to the reader who has formed her impressions in the presence of those words.

What do you take from this line, and why?

Hot Licks · Answer

I would interpret it to mean that the gaze of the bay mare is so serious and perhaps "penetrating" that it causes me to suppress my natural tendency to be silly. (Remind me to never look a bay mare in the eyes!)

Answered by Hot Licks on July 26, 2020

to shame something out of someone

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