Poetry · Chapter
Tell Me explained
A child asks a traveler about what lies beyond the hill, and the traveler describes a journey through valleys, towns, moors, and seas, eventually revealing a stair of colored stones ascending into the sky where there is no weariness.
What happens
A child asks a traveler about what lies beyond the hill, and the traveler describes a journey through valleys, towns, moors, and seas, eventually revealing a stair of colored stones ascending into the sky where there is no weariness. The child wishes to go but is told the stair is too steep to climb; instead, they must lie at its foot and wait patiently until a wayfaring man with wounded hands carries them up.
Themes in this chapter
Childhood and Innocence
The child's innocent curiosity and trust in the traveler's guidance embody the purity of youthful faith.
Redemption and Grace
The wayfaring man with wounded hands who carries the child up the stair symbolizes Christ's redemptive grace.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The traveler who answers the child's questions about the journey and the stair.
- The Child-Mother
The child who asks about what lies over the hill and longs to ascend the stair.
- Jesus Christ
Implied as the wayfaring man with wounded hands who carries pilgrims up the stair.
Key passages
“If you want to escape, away in the west You will see a stair ascend, Built of all colours of lovely stones, A stair up into the sky Where no one is weary, and no one moans, Or wishes to be laid by.”
To find freedom from the endless cycle of earthly life, look westward for a rainbow-hued staircase rising to heaven, a place free from exhaustion and sorrow.
The stair represents a divine path to eternal rest.
“But a wayfaring man with wounded hands Will carry you up the stair.”
A traveler whose hands bear scars will lift you and take you up the staircase.
This alludes to Christ's crucifixion wounds and his role as savior.