Robert Franklin Warren Father of Robert Penn Warren Born February 14, 1869 Died January 17, 1955 Buried- Highland Cemetery-Guthrie, Ky. |
Robert Franklin
Warren and Anna Ruth Penn were married in her father's home in Cerulean, KY on July 6,
1904 at 6 A.M. in order to catch the Illinois Central morning train in Princeton, KY,
twenty miles away, to go on their honeymoon. After attending the World's Fair in St. Louis
they proceeded on to visit the Great Lakes and probably Niagara Falls too. Exactly a month
after his mother's thirtieth birthday their first child was born. In her clear, flowing,
schoolteacher's hand she recorded it in the big family Bible: "Robt Penn Warren Guthrie, Todd County Ky April 24--1905."* *Note-The above info is taken from Joseph Blotner's Robert Penn Warren A Biography. Not verbatim. |
Anna Ruth Penn Warren Mother of Robert Penn Warren Born February 15, 1875 Died October 5, 1931 Buried Highland Cemetery-Guthrie, Ky. |
| The center of
attention--an infantile face.…
That center of attention, swathed in a sort of white dress, Is precious to the woman who, pretty and young, Leans with a look of surprised blessedness At the mysterious miracle forth-sprung.
In the background somewhat, the masculine figure Looms, face agleam with achievement and pride.
From the poem, Old Photograph of the Future, included in the book New & Selected Poems: 1923-1985, Random House, (1985), copyright 1985 by Robert Penn Warren. Reprinted by permission of William Morris Agency, Inc., New York, on behalf of the Author.
Note- Because of problems of spacing the line breaks in the
poetry hereon are not always shown as they were written by the author. Text is
identical. |
All
predictable--lunch, the baby asleep, children gone But not far, and Father and Mother gone, hand in hand, Heads together as though in one long conversation That even now I can't think has had an end…
But picnics have ends, and just as the sun set, My mother cried out, "Could a place so beautiful be!" And my father said, "My ship will come in yet, And you'll see all the beautiful world there is to see." "What more could I want, "she now cried,--- "when I love everything I now see?"
So she swung the baby against the rose-tinted sky And a bird note burst from her throat, and she gaily sang As we clop-clopped homeward while the shadows, sly, Leashed the Future up, like a hound with a slavering fang.
But sleepy, I didn't know what a Future was, as she sang.
And she sang.
From the poem October Picnic Long Ago included in the book Being Here: Poetry 1977-1980, Random House, (1980), copyright 1978,1979,1980 by Robert Penn Warren. Reprinted by permission of William Morris Agency, Inc., New York, on behalf of the Author. |