Shroud Of The Gnome [Hardcover]

James Tate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 1997

The speakers in Pulitzer Prize-winning James Tate's poems are unlike any we know. A man's meditation on gardening renders him witless. Another traps theories, then lets them loose in a city park. . . . SHROUD OF THE GNOME is a bravura performance in Tate's signature style. Here, once again, one of America's most masterful poets celebrates the inexplicable in his own strange tongue .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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"

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...

...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:

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.

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.

From Library Journal

In this slim volume, following on the heels of his National Book Award-winning Worshipful Company of Fletchers (LJ 9/15/94) and Pulitzer Prize-winning Selected Poems (Univ. Pr. of New England, 1991), Tate continues his zany and often self-deprecating inquisition into suburbia's perilous allure. The natural world offers nothing but a "sunset so beautiful it terrifies,"and mere nouns?morphodite, felisber to, mergotroid?make one uneasy. Yet Tate persistently reaches out to whoever (or whatever) is closest: a passing motorist, a motel clerk, a man in a pharmacy: "My plants think I'm one of them,/ and they don't look so good themselves, or so/ I tell them." This poetry has little to do with the "deep-image" surrealism popularized in this country by Bly and Merwin but traces bizarre juxtapositions back to their purer French roots. For most, if not all, collections.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 72 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; 1st edition (November 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880015616
• ISBN-13: 978-0880015615
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,363,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Tate yet..., March 29, 2000

By 

J. Russ (STOW, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shroud Of The Gnome (Paperback)

It is with the Shroud of the Gnome that Tate seems to have matured-- here is the blending of his poignant early voice and the talent of the later comic linguist. In the poem "Smart" he employs imaginatively catchy opening lines: "I had a theory for a while, but I had to let it go. / It was wasting away in captivity. / It sat there in the cage of my brain and wouldn't eat." This is Tate's gift for rare, humorous metaphor once more. Slightly off-center and yet understandable enough that you can identify the image as that of a poem never fully written or realized.

In "Dream On" he calls to the poet and the poetry lover alike: "Some people go their whole lives / without ever writing a single poem. / Extraordinary people who don't hesitate / to cut somebody's heart or skull open." In "At the Days End Motel" he reflects on life in lines like: "Down the road, about a quarter of a mile, a tractor trailer / jackknifed and took a station wagon and a minibus / with it straight to hell where they had some / remarkably good carrot cake." Here Tate is again the thought provoking poet. Surreal and abstract language create dense imagery that enhances the already edgy substance of Tate's language.

Tate has been called a standup comic of poetry, yet this is, to me, wherein his genius lies. If he can make us look closer at our world, our limitations and our potentials and at the same time tease us with a fresh look at our own language, then he deserves our attention.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than taking your mother to the prom., October 16, 1999

By 

"mzapruder" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shroud Of The Gnome (Hardcover)

Trying to live without this book is like trying to walk in shoes without your feet in them. Meaning, each poem is like a little exhortation to fall asleep at crucial intersections. Dream replacement therapy. You will absolutely love this book, or we'll come and stuff you full of numinal cheesecake.