In this Book
- Selected Poems
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Wesleyan University Press
- Series: Wesleyan Poetry Program
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summary
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1992)
Winner of the William Carlos Williams Award (1992)
The Selected Poems James Tate's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection and his first British publication, gathers work from nine previous books, from the Lost Pilot which was a Yale Younger Poets selection in 1967, through his 1986 collection Reckoner. He is a most agile poet in a precarious world. Life is alarming and absurd, but properly considered that absurdity reveals, often with laughter, the something else by which we live. The poems are about our world, our wrecked, vexed love for it. Tate has been described as a surrealist. If that is what he is, his surrealism issues in a vision of a world delivered back to itself by his unillusioned subversion and candor.
Table of Contents
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- I. from The Lost Pilot (1967)
- The Book of Lies
- pp. 4-15
- Coming Down Cleveland Avenue
- pp. 5-16
- Reapers of the Water
- pp. 6-7
- Epithalamion for Tyler
- pp. 8-19
- For Mother on Father's Day
- pp. 9-20
- In a Town for Which I Know No Name
- pp. 10-21
- Success Comes to Cow Creek
- pp. 11-12
- Why I Will Not Get Out of Bed
- pp. 13-24
- The Lost Pilot
- pp. 15-16
- Intimidations of an Autobiography
- pp. 17-18
- The End of the Line
- pp. 19-30
- The Last Days of April
- pp. 23-34
- How the Friends Met
- pp. 25-36
- Tragedy Comes to the Bad Lands
- pp. 26-37
- The Mirror
- pp. 29-40
- The Tabernacle
- pp. 30-31
- Late Harvest
- pp. 32-43
- Today I Am Falling
- pp. 33-34
- II. from The Oblivion Ha-Ha (1970)
- Rape in the Engineering Building
- pp. 38-49
- The Blue Booby
- pp. 39-40
- The Pet Deer
- pp. 41-52
- Prose Poem
- pp. 43-54
- Pity Ascending with the Fog
- pp. 46-57
- Pride's Crossing
- pp. 47-58
- The Indian Undertaker
- pp. 48-59
- The Initiation
- pp. 49-60
- Shadowboxing
- pp. 51-62
- From the Hole
- pp. 53-64
- Twilight Sustenance Hiatus
- pp. 55-66
- The Wheelchair Butterfly
- pp. 56-57
- The Eagle Exterminating Company
- pp. 60-71
- The President Slumming
- pp. 61-72
- Conjuring Roethke
- pp. 64-75
- Dear Reader
- pp. 65-66
- III. from Hints to Pilgrims (1971)
- Recipe for Sleep
- pp. 69-80
- Brother of the Unknown Ancient Man
- pp. 70-81
- When the Nomads Come Over the Hill
- pp. 71-82
- I Take Back All My Kisses
- pp. 73-74
- Frivolous Blind Death Child
- pp. 75-86
- Alternatives
- pp. 76-78
- Amnesia People
- pp. 79-87
- Fuck the Astronauts
- pp. 88-89
- IV. from Absences (1972)
- The Distant Orgasm
- pp. 96-98
- The Private Intrigue of Melancholy
- pp. 99-110
- A Guide to the Stone Age
- pp. 100-111
- Wait for Me
- pp. 101-112
- The Delicate Riders
- pp. 102-113
- If You Would Disappear at Sea
- pp. 103-114
- My Great Great Etc. Uncle Patrick Henry
- pp. 116-127
- Deaf Girl Playing
- pp. 117-118
- First Lesson
- pp. 119-130
- The Soup of Venus
- pp. 120-131
- The Immortals
- pp. 121-132
- Teaching the Ape to Write Poems
- pp. 122-133
- Man with Wooden Leg Escapes Prison
- pp. 123-134
- Saint John of the Cross in Prison
- pp. 124-135
- Cycle of Dust
- pp. 125-130
- V. from Hottentot Ossuary (1974)
- Leaping Woman
- pp. 135-146
- The Hostile Philharmonic Orchestra
- pp. 136-147
- VI. from Viper Jazz (1976)
- Poem (I Can't Speak for the Wind)
- pp. 139-150
- Sensitive Ears
- pp. 140-151
- Alfonso Lacklustre
- pp. 142-143
- Awkward Silence
- pp. 144-155
- A Radical Departure
- pp. 145-156
- Read the Great Poets
- pp. 146-147
- On the Subject of Doctors
- pp. 148-159
- Village 104
- pp. 151-162
- Amherst to Easthampton
- pp. 154-165
- The Glassy Harbor
- pp. 155-166
- "Dreamy Cars Graze on the Dewy Boulevard"
- pp. 156-167
- Poem (Language was almost impossible)
- pp. 159-170
- In a Motel on Lake Erie
- pp. 160-171
- A Dime Found in the Snow
- pp. 161-162
- VII. from Riven Doggeries (1979)
- Riven Doggeries
- pp. 165-176
- Heatstroke
- pp. 166-187
- Sloops in the Bay
- pp. 169-180
- With a Child All Day
- pp. 170-181
- Nature Poem: Demanding Stiff Sentences
- pp. 171-182
- The Shy One
- pp. 173-184
- The Life of Poetry
- pp. 174-185
- River's Story
- pp. 175-186
- The Responsible Romance
- pp. 176-187
- Goodtime Jesus
- pp. 177-188
- In the Realm of the Ignition
- pp. 178-189
- VIII. from Constant Defender (1983)
- Land of Little Sticks, 1945
- pp. 181-192
- Poem for the Sandman
- pp. 182-193
- Five Years Old
- pp. 183-194
- The Horseshoe
- pp. 184-195
- The Wild Cheese
- pp. 185-196
- Nobody's Business
- pp. 186-187
- Tell Them Was Here
- pp. 188-199
- Spring Was Begging to Be Born
- pp. 189-190
- Mystic Moment
- pp. 191-202
- Summer Night
- pp. 194-195
- Nausea, Coincidence
- pp. 196-207
- Blue Spill
- pp. 197-208
- Yellow Newspaper and a Wooden Leg
- pp. 198-209
- Constant Defender
- pp. 199-210
- The Motorcyclists
- pp. 200-211
- Memo to the Dark Angel
- pp. 201-212
- If It Would All Please Hurry
- pp. 202-204
- Interruptions
- pp. 205-216
- Bluebird Houses
- pp. 206-217
- Poem to Some of My Recent Poems
- pp. 209-220
- A Jangling Yarn
- pp. 210-221
- Paint 'Til You Faint
- pp. 211-212
- Tragedy's Greatest Hits
- pp. 213-224
- Toward Saint Looey
- pp. 214-215
- Earthworks
- pp. 216-227
- On the World's Birthday
- pp. 217-218
- IX. from Reckoner (1986)
- Jo Jo's Fireworks-Next Exit
- pp. 221-232
- No Rest for the Gambler
- pp. 222-233
- The List of Famous Hats
- pp. 225-236
- Jelka Revisited
- pp. 226-227
- Smart and Final Iris
- pp. 228-239
- The Chaste Stranger
- pp. 229-230
- A Vagabond
- pp. 232-233
- The Sadness of My Neighbors
- pp. 235-246
- Thoughts While Reading The Sand Reckoner
- pp. 236-237
- Stella Maris
- pp. 239-256
- About the Author
- pp. 257-258
Additional Information
ISBN
9780819574503
Related ISBN(s)
9780819511928, 9780819521903
MARC Record
OCLC
867740336
Pages
250
Launched on MUSE
2013-10-21
Language
English
Open Access
No
Purchase
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