“Tell Me a Story”
“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. The story in part A exemplifies all the qualities that are delineated in part B. Robert Peen Warren’s childhood contact with geese can be designated as an instant of mania because he was captivated by the geese even though he would not see them. The story is about Time even though Robert does not explicitly proclaim that it is concerning time. The story is enchanting be considering that Robert only perceived the geese’s sound for he could not view them due to the insufficiency of moonlight and stars. Nevertheless, Robert detected that an inexplicable phenomenon was transpiring in his heart as a result of the imperceptible geese. The geese embody the inconspicuousness and preeminence of time.
“Evening Hawk”
The “Evening Hawk” incarnate the Philosophy of time. Robert Peen Warren writes, “his (the hawk) motion/Is that of the honed steel-edge, we hear/The crashless fall of stalks of Time.” The hawk’s celestial navigation of space is analogous to the suave course of time. The hawk is habituated to hovering thus it does not crash viciously. The hawk’s capability to circumnavigate gravity curtails errors while flying. Robert Penn Warren observes, “He ( the hawk) is climbing the last light/who know neither Time nor error.” This remark suppositions that time accelerates without blunders. The citation of hieroglyphics and Plato stresses the hawk’s primeval wisdom. Accordingly, time is sublime, prehistorical aspect that cannot be proscribed by humans.
“Mortal Limits”
“Mortal Limits” is parallel to “Evening Hawk” due to the deployment of the figurative hawk. The symbol of the hawk in “Mortal Limits” describes the bounds beyond which humans cannot stretch. Robert Penn Warren writes, “ Beyond what height/ Hangs now the black speck? Beyond what range will gold eyes see/The New ranges rises to mark a last scrawl of light?” The hawk’s aptitude to fly sanctions it to soar to heights beyond the snow-snags. As a result , the hawk’s proportions contracts to the extent that it emerges like a ‘black speck.’ The diminished size characterizes the demarcations of mortality. Human beings are delineated by the restrictions of transience that they cannot upend.
