True Love by Robert Penn Warren

True Love
by Robert Penn Warren
In silence the heart raves. It utters words Meaningless, that never had A meaning. I was ten, skinny, red-headed, Freckled. In a big black Buick, Driven by a big grown boy, with a necktie, she sat In front of the drugstore, sipping something Through a straw. There is nothing like Beauty. It stops your heart. It Thickens your blood. It stops your breath. It Makes you feel dirty. You need a hot bath. I leaned against a telephone pole, and watched. I thought I would die if she saw me. How could I exist in the same world with that brightness? Two years later she smiled at me. She Named my name. I thought I would wake up dead. Her grown brothers walked with the bent-knee Swagger of horsemen. They were slick-faced. Told jokes in the barbershop. Did no work. Their father was what is called a drunkard. Whatever he was he stayed on the third floor Of the big white farmhouse under the maples for twenty-five years. He never came down. They brought everything up to him. I did not know what a mortgage was. His wife was a good, Christian woman, and prayed. When the daughter got married, the old man came down wearing An old tail coat, the pleated shirt yellowing. The sons propped him. I saw the wedding. There were Engraved invitations, it was so fashionable. I thought I would cry. I lay in bed that night And wondered if she would cry when something was done to her. The mortgage was foreclosed. That last word was whispered. She never came back. The family Sort of drifted off. Nobody wears shiny boots like that now. But I know she is beautiful forever, and lives In a beautiful house, far away. She called my name once. I didn't even know she knew it.

In this poem the author is obviously in love with a woman he can only view from a distance. With the vast amount of details it is not hard to imagine the situation. The author does an excellent job of taking what could be a simple story and writing it in poetic form. From the beginning, a young boy gazing at a girl from afar is captivated by her beauty and continues to live for every moment where there paths might cross again. According to the poem, the author gives the idea that he does not know this girl/woman well but provides examples of knowing the life she lived. The words "In silence the heart raves. It utters words / Meaningless, that never had / A meaning.", describes how love simply feels and there are no words that can truly describe what he is going through. When "The mortgage was foreclosed. That last word was whispered" Warren metaphorically states that the father has passed and there is no longer any reason for the daughter to return to her home. Although, "...she is beautiful forever", it is obvious that his love goes unrequited.