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Robert Penn Warren’s poem ‘Tell Me a Story’ contains two sections. The first section hints at the past when the speaker was young and heard a bird’s call that was migrating to the north. In the second part, he asks the audience to tell him a story about distant objects.
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Tell me a story. In this century, and moment, of mania, Tell me a story. Make it a story of great distances, and starlight. The name of the story will be Time, But you must not pronounce its name. Tell me a story of deep delight.
“Tell Me a Story” is distinctive due to its structure. The poem is apportioned into two sections namely: A and B. Section A advances a story about Robert Penn Warren’s boyhood encounter with geese whereas part B bids the audience to recount a story on the topic of time.
In the poem, Warren employs Audubon as a vehicle for exploring the questions of human identity, empathy, and mercy. In this final section, the narrator steps out from behind Audubon and speaks autobiographically, defining the essential ingredients of a story.
Tell me a story. In this century, and moment, of mania, Tell me a story. Make it a story of great distances, and starlight. The name of the story will be Time, But you must not pronounce its name. Tell me a story of deep delight.
RPW: Tell me a story. Yes, the Kentucky lane is quiet. The bayou, still lonely, stirs from no-sleep. And the seaboard megalopolis Burns and blinks, littered with the refuse Of greatness and dismay. And wonder Now, boy-man, at the distance In the stars, and at the distance In your heart, And how the manic order, no-order, of years Rips the sense ...
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Apr 11, 2011 · The story for which the speaker longs may harken to the stories Warren heard as a child about the Civil War, when the South believed it was indomitable and would last forever. How does Warren's biography change your perception of this poem?
