6. Summary

The poem "Mystery of the Talking Fan" is written by Maude Rubin. It deals with the speaker wondering about a ceiling fan in the room. The fan makes a lot of noise. The speaker refers to the fan as a human being and addresses it as "he". The noise is referred to as an electrical chatter. The speaker is curious as to what the fan is trying to convey. He assumes that the noise is the fan's way of communicating its emotions. It remains a mystery to the speaker. But one day, someone pours some oil into the motor of the fan. Oil makes the fan less squeaky. It runs as still as water. The speaker is worried that he will never know what the fan was trying to say. He is disappointed that he will never unravel the mystery of the talking fan.