Actions Speak Louder Than Words.

~These poems were very hard for me to comprehend. I understood them alright, but there are so many things circling in my head about the poem; maybe when we meet for class, I will get a better understanding of what it all means.
I believe that the stories/ poems both use silence but to me silence is not really present in the stories at all.
In the poem, A Story, the son wants to be told a completely new story. The father hesitates and is so confused with what he should do with his sons request. His thoughts are loud and screaming to me; he is thinking about how he likes to tell the same stories to his son because of his reaction to them and the young spirit he has. The father is worried about him leaving, he doesn't ever want him to leave, he wants to keep his boy and the tradition of his many stories. I believe the man also might be scared that if he makes up a new one, the boy won't remember it, or it won't amuse him. I believe there is some-what of a silence happening in this story because of the inner conflict the father has and the outer conflict the son and the father have. These emotions and actions are very loud, so to me it's not silence.
In the poem The Dumb Man, the speaker exclaims that he can not remember a story but sometimes he can, and he is dumb and etc. I think that the poem was constructed to seem almost spontaneous. I think the speaker sort-of came up with the story on the spot, or had just thought about it. Because he exclaims he can't remember it, he probably makes a new story up each time. I don't completely understand this story, but I'm guessing this woman is having to choose between the three men downstairs? When the white man comes upstairs to greet her she instantly is attracted to him. Maybe because he was the only one who cared enough to come up stairs? Maybe he can't tell the story because he is missing a piece of it, ( why the dandified man was laughing throughout his story?, who is the woman?, what does she represent?, who is the white one?, what does he represent?). Maybe the man said he can not tell it because only you can tell yourself the story; maybe the piece missing is you. Maybe the white one and the three men are silent because all of their actions speak louder than words.
Overall, I do not think the speaker is dumb, I just think he is confused, like everyone else who reads this poem! haha Anyways, I can't make up my mind on what this one means. Hopefully the rest of the class will explain it to me/ we will discuss it!