Poetry for Students Vol. 10

96 Poetry for Students

situation occurring in America around the time

when “Dear Reader,” was composed: the burning

of draft cards as a protest against the Vietnam War.

With his choice of “identification papers,” how-

ever, Tate proposes something even more funda-

mentally revolutionary. Whereas the burning of

draft cards attempts to negate one aspect of what

is perceived to be an unjust system, the burning of

identification papers would be a protest directed at

the entirety of such a system. This move would re-

quire great sacrifice on the part of all involved, in-

cluding the loss of creature comforts and material

possessions that keep most everyone safe and

happy within a sense of false security. In keeping

with the revolutionary tenor of the times, Tate

seems to be implying that such a sacrifice may be

the only means of breaking through to the heart of

what really matters, of scraping off the “freezing

sleet” that coats society in a numb, impenetrable

gloss of superficiality. He is saying, in a sense,

Let’s fire up the public imagination and get our

priorities straight.

In the poem’s final stanza, however, this burn-

ing desire dissipates under the weight of doubt and

the realization that his goal of communal passion

will likely never come to fruition. “I don’t know,”

Tate remarks with a tinge of helplessness, “but I

keep working, working ...” In other words, he is

determined to keep striving for this ideal concep-

tion of shared passion, to keep plugging away in

his poetry despite the possibility that his words will

make “nothing happen,” will fail to spark the com-

munal intensity he so desires. This struggle is not

uncommon among serious writers, who are often

caught in the dilemma of trying to push their cre-

ative powers to new heights and worrying about

whether an at-large readership will jump ship for

something “safe” and less demanding. This

dilemma is clearly at play in the poem’s last stanza,

where Tate implies that his quest for artistic growth

is being fueled by two contradictory forces: hatred

for the reader (or, perhaps more precisely, for the

kind of reader expectation that might force him to

stop taking risks and thus compromise his artistic

growth) and the all-consuming needs of the muse,

as represented by the moon eating away at him.

In the poem’s context, however, the hungry

moon of the last stanza is as loaded an image as

the “burning snowflake” of the first stanza. Both

are images of “cold fire” being used in an irrational

way, for just as a snowflake cannot burn, the moon

cannot eat. Yet the moon is surely an object of “cold

fire” in that it “burns” or glows but is known to be

largely a frozen stone in the sky. In one sense, Tate

may be saying by way of this surreal image that

the muse will always burn within him, regardless

of his concerns about his readership. In another

sense, given that the moon has traditionally func-

tioned as a literary symbol of longing and desire,

Tate may be saying that no matter how strongly he

convinces himself that the reader is an enemy of

sorts, he will always long for a stronger connection

between the reader and himself. Though this con-

nection may have its high points and low points

(much as the moon waxes and wanes), it will serve

as a source of sustenance for poets and poetry read-

ers alike for as long as there is a moon in the sky.

Source:Cliff Saunders, in an essay for Poetry for Students,

Gale, 2001.

Sources

Amazon,www.amazon.com (April 18, 2000).

The History Channel,www.historychannel.com (April 18,

2000).

Tate, James, The Oblivion Ha-Ha,Little, Brown & Com-

pany, 1970.

———, The Route as Briefed,University of Michigan Press,

1999.

For Further Study

Tate, James, The Lost Pilot,Yale University Press, 1967.

This is Tate’s first and most highly acclaimed col-

lection. Taking its title from the actual event of his

father’s plane being shot down during World War II,

the poet blends childhood memories, personal en-

counters, and his own imagination to create this

award-winning book

———, Worshipful Company of Fletchers,Ecco Press,

1994.

This recent collection was the winner of a National

Book Award. In these poems, Tate continues his sur-

prising twists of metaphors and comedy/horror ef-

fects by placing in bizarre situations such ordinary

things as toy poodles, gum wrappers, crayons, and

Camp fire Girls.

Upton, Lee, The Muse of Abandonment: Origin, Identity,

Mastery, in Five American Poets,Bucknell University Press,

1998.

As the title suggests, this book is a close and com-

prehensive look at how and why five poets produce

the work they do. Poets include: Russell Edson,

Louise Gluck, James Tate, Jean Valentine, and

Charles Wright.

Dear Reader