90 Poetry for Students
Biography,“Critic after critic has pointed out the
obvious: his imagery is dreamlike, although clear;
his stance is often ironical, ranging from involve-
ment to objectivity; his major themes confront (al-
though some would say avoid) the confusion, ter-
ror, emptiness, or boredom that defines the times.”
In general, Tate’s work has been well received,
most readers referring to his ability to convey the
inner human psyche and all our dark thoughts with-
out pitching the entire poem into despair and hope-
lessness. He has also been applauded for his humor
in the face of anguish and whimsy in the midst of
melancholy.
Not all critics have been so accepting, how-
ever. Those who find fault with Tate’s poetry most
often site the lack of realsubstance it contains.
They point out that the “cleverness”—the unusual
imagery, odd juxtapositions, bizarre occurrences,
and so forth—sometimes present only confusing
fluff that soundsinteresting but means nothing. De-
spite the harshness of these criticisms, Tate’s over-
all acceptance is recognizable in the numerous ac-
colades he has won over the years, including the
Yale Series of Younger Poets Award in 1966, a Na-
tional Institute of Arts and Letters Award in 1974,
and a Pulitzer Prize in 1992.Criticism
Jeannine Johnson
In the following essay, Johnson examines the
conflicted sentiments the poet has toward his
reader, revealing that Tate ultimately concedes it
is better for a poem to be read than to remain un-
read.In “Dear Reader,” James Tate explores the na-
ture of poetry by examining the relationships that
coexist with it. The poem first appeared in the 1970
collection The Oblivion Ha-Haand is reprinted in
Selected Poems.In “Dear Reader,” though he is in-
terested in the creation of meaning and other the-
oretical issues involving verse, Tate is more con-
cerned with the ways that we use poetry and with
its role in a unique kind of interaction between peo-
ple. Tate has said that “The poem is man’s noblest
effort because it is utterly useless” (Contemporary
Poets of the English Language). However, it is
clear in “Dear Reader” that, even if it is true that
poetry is useless, Tate continues to act as if it were
not. He wants to believe that poetry can serve some
constructive purpose and that it can contribute to
our efforts to know ourselves and each other.The tension between Tate’s knowledge that
poetry is useless and his desire for poetry to be use-
ful is reflected in the conflicted feelings the poet
directs toward his reader. On the one hand, the poet
resents the reader, as he is forced to “keep work-
ing, working / half hating you.” On the other hand,
there is no doubt that the poet needs a reader, that
he cannot work without imagining that someone
hears him, and that he is willing to make extraor-
dinary sacrifices for that person: “I’ll give up my
sleep for you. / This freezing sleet keeps coming
down / and I can barely see.” The poet is willing
to risk fatigue, illness, and even compromised vi-
sion for the sake of a reader, demonstrating just
how important it is for his voice to be received by
another person.
In his introduction to The Best American Po-
etry 1997,Tate claims that poets “write their po-
ems with various degrees of obsessiveness mostly
for themselves.” A good poet, he contends in that
essay, does not write with his audience in mind,
nor for the primary purpose of being read, recog-
nized, or understood. Instead, a poet writes poetry
to serve his own needs and to fulfill his own in-
tentions. And yet, somewhat paradoxically, it is this
method of composing exclusively for himself that
makes it worthwhile for others to read his poetry.
Tate continues, “It is precisely because the poet has
written his poems in solitude for himself to satisfy
unanalyzable hungers and to please his highest
standards with negligible prospects of any other re-
wards that the poem is incorruptible and may ad-
dress issues unaddressed by many people in their
daily lives.” In other words, a poet writes best when
he refuses to consider the demands of others or the
possible acclaim he might receive for his work.
When he does so, he can concentrate on grooming
the poem for its own sake and can ensure that
everything in it contributes to its success. Thus, in
writing for himself, the poet makes it more likely
that his poems will be effective and, therefore, that
they will be valued by his readers.
Tate may have felt more secure about his abil-
ity to attract readers in 1997—by which time he
was sufficiently well-known to have been named
to the prestigious position of editor in the Best
American Poetryseries—than he was in 1970 when
he published “Dear Reader.” Thirty years before
his assignment at Best American Poetry 1997,he
was not as eager to ignore his reader, and this de-
pendence created considerable conflict in the poem.
Here and elsewhere in Tate’s work, the intimate re-
lationships that are engendered by poetry are al-
most familial. Poem, poet, and reader interact withDear Reader