My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop

Throughout “My Uncle’s Favorite Coffee Shop,” Nye repeats key phrases about language and communication, cleverly altering their meaning as she recasts them over the course of the poem. Most notably, the phrase “I cannot tell you” appears four separate times, in both the uncle’s voice and the speaker’s. At the beginning, the stakes are low: The uncle describes the coffee shop, saying “I cannot tell you—how I love this place” (Line 9). The speaker mentions he uses this phrase all the time, but always follows it with an attempt to “tell” what he wants to say (Line 13). In the fourth stanza, Nye heightens the stakes. The uncle says, “I cannot tell you—how my heart has settled at last” (Line 33). She adds another layer of characterization to the uncle, showing his rich, emotional interior life. Using the repeated phrase builds a sense of tension for the reader, as each use complicates the figure of the uncle and adds to the reader’s emotional investment in him.

The final repetition, in the speaker’s voice, occurs as the solitary line for the fifth stanza. Setting it apart, Nye prepares the reader for the horror and sadness of the final stanza, and the uncle’s death.