<![CDATA[Shroud Of The Gnome]]>

false <![CDATA[Shroud Of The Gnome]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173290337m/268503.jpg 268503 2 Reading James Tate's collection of poetry, The Shroud of the Gnome, is a little like reading Lewis Carroll's more inspired fits of nonsense minus the rhyming and with much sharper teeth. Take, for example, Tate's poem, "Restless Leg Syndrome," in which the narrator's leg "flies around the room kicking stuff" <blockquote> It kicked the scrimshaw collection, yes it did. It kicked the ocelot, which was rude and uncalled for, and yes hurtful. It kicked the guacamole right out of its bowl, which made for a grubby and potentially dangerous workplace. I was out testing the new speed bump when it kicked the Viscountess, which she probably deserved... </blockquote> ...and so on. The tone is conversational, yet the originality of the ideas, the mad scramble of images and the underlying purpose take these poems out of the realm of amusing doggerel entirely. In "Never Again the Same" Tate imbues a sunset with terror: <blockquote> peaches dripping opium, pandemonium of tangerines, inferno of irises, Plutonian emeralds, and the wonder of discovery: And then the streetlights came on as always and we looked into one another's eyes-- ancient caves with still pools and those little transparent fish who have never seen even one ray of light. And the calm that returned to us was not even our own. </blockquote> We've all seen a sunset before, but Tate makes the experience wholly new. Beneath Tate's playfulness, there's a serious mind at work. This man believes that poetry is essential to a well-rounded life. In "Dream On" he marvels that "Some people go their whole lives without ever writing a single poem," and after enumerating the many ills a society without poetry suffers--everything from delinquent children to a dog that "howls all night, lonely and starving for more poetry in his life"--he describes the blessings of poetry, the "pure ordinariness of life seeking, through poetry, a benediction...." There may be many people in this world who have never written a poem; fortunately, James Tate is not one of them. 1184837 1997 Shroud Of The Gnome total:96|5:34|4:36|3:21|2:5|1:0| 96 387 123 5 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed May 13 11:01:02 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 11:04:10 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Aug 12 15:43:38 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 12 15:44:52 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon Jun 09 16:31:05 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 09 16:31:54 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Tue Jan 22 15:16:32 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 15:17:20 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Sat Jul 28 08:20:10 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 18 21:25:17 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Thu Nov 19 09:46:40 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 09:46:40 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 15 08:56:05 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 08:56:05 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Sun Nov 01 10:44:46 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 10:44:46 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 22 21:56:27 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 21:56:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 22 07:00:37 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 07:00:37 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Sep 08 00:18:03 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 00:18:03 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Sep 07 08:33:37 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 08:33:39 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Sep 28 09:41:34 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 09:04:46 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 09:41:34 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jun 28 19:46:55 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 19:46:55 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 21 22:42:56 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 22:42:56 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jun 21 06:27:55 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 06:27:55 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jun 15 15:25:35 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 15:25:35 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu May 28 12:47:58 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 12:47:58 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon May 18 10:36:42 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 10:36:42 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu May 07 11:29:06 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 11:29:06 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=268503