One Wants A Teller In A Time Like This

One Wants A Teller In A Time Like This 


One wants a teller in a time like this

One's not a man, one's not a woman grown
To bear enormous business all alone.

One cannot walk this winding street with pride
Straight-shouldered, tranquil-eyed,
Knowing one knows for sure the way back home.
One wonders if one has a home.

One is not certain if or why or how.
One wants a Teller now:

Put on your rubbers and you won't catch a cold
Here's hell, there's heaven. Go to Sunday School
Be patient, time brings all good things--(and cool
Stong balm to calm the burning at the brain?)
Behold,
Love's true, and triumphs; and God's actual.




One Wants A Teller In A Time Like This is about someone, reverting to their childish ways, wanting someone to tell them what to do. They are lost, and looking for guidance. Brooks alludes to the way children are told to do things by their parents in lines such as "Put on your rubbers and you won't catch a cold." By referencing absolutes such as heaven and hell, she speaks of wanting absolutes and true answers, cut and dry, no room for interpretation, as things would be easier this way. Like many of Brooks' poems there is a rhyme scheme. She ends the poem with the two answers that she knows; "Love's true, and triumphs; and God's actual."