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 final lines of this poem found collection devoted to John James Audubon could well be used as the thematic motif for much of Warren’s greatest verse. He is a master storyteller capable of delivering dramatic goods in a narrative constructed from prose as well as poetry. Although not deserving of being solely characterized as writer of narrative verse, he reveals himself a master of the form whether in thematically unified collections such as Audubon: A Vision or “novels in verse” such as Brother to Dragons.
The oaks, how subtle and marine,
Bearded, and layered light
Above them swims; and thus the scene,
Recessed, awaits the positive night.
The opening lines of “Bearded Oaks” is one of the most perfect and iconic examples of how Warren approaches the concept of poet construction in much of his verse. He begins by setting the stage with a concrete and literal setting that expands outward metaphorically as the petard to hoist a metaphysical observation. By the time the reader reaches the end, the full metaphorical content of what seemed to be merely literal has become evident.
Can the heart`s mediation wake us from life`s long sleep,
And instruct us how foolish and fond was our labor spent--
Us who now know that only at death of ambition does the deep
Energy crack crust, spurt forth, and leap
From grottoes dark--and from the caverned enchainment?
The final stanza of this poem—as well as the example referenced above—both serve to put an roadblock in the path of what is a common criticism or complaint about Warren’s poetry: that he is not at his best when he focuses attention on rhyme and meter. It is true that Warren’s poetry excels when he is not constrained by constructive elements, but that may perhaps be more due to the fact that his best verse tends to be his longer poems rather than the shorter lyric examples that these lines represent.
Immortality is not impossible,
Even joy.
An even greater example of Warren taking the reader out on a high note of artistry can be found in the closing lines of “The Interim.” The whole poem is dependent upon the metaphor of life, love and death and the intermingling of these three states of existence. Like so many of the poet’s verse, metaphor becomes everything. The opening lines set the stage:
“Between the clod and midnight
The time was.”
For the record, “clod” here does not refer to a clodhopper; some sort of ignoramus, but dirt. The poem is concerned with dust to dust and ashes to ashes and with the ending image of immortality being within grasp—though as admittedly as difficult to find as joy—it becomes fairly simple to ascertain what is metaphorically intended by the time period alluded to in the poem’s title. Hint: that portion between dust and dust and leading from ash to ash.
