Storyteller This poem is a descriptive poem, which illustrates the effect of storytelling on the human mind.

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Storyteller

This poem is a descriptive poem, which illustrates the effect of storytelling on the human mind. The poet creates a setting of village life where the only form of evening entertainment was oral storytelling. The poet seems to be talking about a time before electricity made watching television possible. The whole poem has a nostalgic tone.

The poet creates an ambience and a mood for storytelling. It would be late evening when 'the last crumb of daylight was salted away'. In preparation for the storytelling session after supper, the women would clean up the kitchen, rub the table clean and place the 'cracked delft' back on the dresser. The reader can actually hear the sweeping motion of this process because the poet uses alliteration - she sat down / at the scoured table /in the swept kitchen / beside the dresser with its cracked delft'. The 's' sound is being repeated.

The poet uses a metaphor to describe how in the act of sweeping, even the last rays of sunlight are cleared away. The daylight is compared to the last crumbs that are brushed off the floor.

The silence of the night is broken 'as