Tell me a story._x000D_ In this century, and moment, of mania,_x000D_ Tell me a story._x000D_ Make it a story of great distances, and starlight._x000D_ The name of the story will be Time,_x000D_ But you must not pronounce its name._x000D_ Tell me a story of deep delight.
Interpretation
Warren emphasizes the importance of storytelling in capturing the essence of time and experience.
This quote by Robert Penn Warren highlights the power of storytelling in a world filled with chaos and distractions. It urges the listener to explore profound narratives that transcend ordinary experiences and convey emotions tied to distance, time, and joy, inviting a deeper reflection on life's complexities without being confined by its definitions.
In practice
During a literary festival, one might use this quote to introduce a discussion on the transformative power of stories.
...the air so still it aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you’ve been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how they might have been yet if what happened had not happened.
The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful.
And what we students of history always learn is that the human being is a very complicated contraption and that they are not good or bad but are good and bad and the good comes out of the bad and the bad out of the good, and the devil take the hindmost.
Yet the definition we have made of ourselves is ourselves. To break out of it, we must make a new self. But how can the self make a new self when the selflessness which it is, is the only substance from which the new self can be made?
So little time we live in Time,_x000D_ _x000D_ And we learn all so painfully,_x000D_ _x000D_ That we may spare this hour's term_x000D_ _x000D_ To practice for Eternity.
For what is a poem but a hazardous attempt at self-understanding: it is the deepest part of autobiography.
I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.
A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb.
I remember saying to myself those things are very, very important to hear, but there must be another way to say them so that they will truly be heard. I mean, that's what art is. Art is about being provocative. Art is also about beauty. And if you leave the latter out, the former doesn't matter.
I've always been interested in photographs, collecting them not systematically but randomly. They get lost, then turn up again.
Sing such a song with all of your heart that you'll never have to sing again.
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.
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