Poets/James Tate

James Tate

1943–2015

Poems: 22
Reader comments: 45

Portrait of James Tate — James Tate 1943–2015

1943Born

Biography

James Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1943. He was the author of twelve collections of poetry including his first volume, The Lost Pilot, which was selected for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award in 1967, The Oblivion Ha Ha (1970), Hints to Pilgrims (1971), Absences (1972), Viper Jazz (1976), Riven Doggeries (1979), Constant Defender (1983), Reckoner (1986) and Distance From Loved Ones (1990).

In 1992, Tate was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the William Carlos Williams Award for his Selected Poems (1991). His collection Worshipful Company of Fletchers (The Ecco Press, 1994) received the National Book Award for Poetry. Among his other awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Institute for Arts and Letters Award for Poetry. He also received the $100,000 Tanning Prize for The Academy of American Poets in 1995.

The Ghost Soldiers, published in 2008, contains nearly 100 poems.

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He has taught poetry at the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia University, and Emerson College. From 1971 he taught at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, which he continued to do until his death in 2015.

Reading closely

Analyses

A full analysis sits under 4 of these poems: what each poem says, how it is built and how readers here have read it. About the analyses

Goodtime Jesus

Goodtime Jesus is a six-line prose poem by James Tate. It imagines Jesus on an ordinary morning, getting up late after a deep sleep. He half-remembers a nightmare of walking corpses, decides he is not afraid of it, and turns to coffee and the weather. The poem ends with a slangy declaration of love for his donkey and for everybody.

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Never Again The SameA sunset so beautiful it terrifies, and the borrowed calm left once it ends
A Knock On The DoorLunch, pie and a nap offered to visitors who only want to talk about the end
The List of Famous HatsNapoleon's too-small private bathing cap, and the strange head beneath his public one

From readers

What readers say about James Tate

On Goodtime Jesus
“This is a wonderful piece. For those of you who don't get it, please keep reading it. Read between the lines. This piece is not shallow by any stretch. There is a DEEP meaning. Try combining the two things foreshadowed by both Jesus' nightmare and "Take a little ride on my donkey,...". You'll get…”
JoshUnited StatesRead the comment →
On Never Again The Same
““And then the streetlights came on as always” That line has stuck in my head for years. After reading about 20+ thousand poems, it’s high on the list which is not even my own.”
Roger BlyRead the comment →
On A Knock On The Door
“when his guests ask him if he's thought about the end of the world, the afterlife and redemption, he asks them if they've thought about the skeletonizer (a moth whose larva eats the leaves of plants)...he has obviously thought about their questions and sees the answer in the moth and the plant but…”
ilene novickUnited StatesRead the comment →
On The List of Famous Hats
“this poem is so suggestive and conversational that it reads like floating, intoxicating air through a sober world. we need more frivolity here on earth, and tate seems to feel the same way - this poem serves to provide some. excellent!!!!”
jordanUnited StatesRead the comment →
On The Lost Pilot
“I first read this poem when I was a teenager in a collection of great american poetry. My mother was very ill for many years but was an incredibly charismatic presence in all our lives. Something about the poem, even in all its differences of circumstance made me think, 'this is how it will feel to…”
GiselleUnited StatesRead the comment →
On Loyalty
“The poem is very good it tells a story of human life but puts sit through a dogs eyes. it is very creative and most modern day poets are too obsessed with getting their message across they arnt that creative but he really got his message across and it was truly beautiful. This poem shows beauty in…”
Nancy MUnited StatesRead the comment →

Where readers gather

Most discussed

All 22 poems

Find a poem Only poems with comments

The Lost Pilot · 1967 · 2 poems

Success Comes To Cow Creek19612
The Lost Pilot19673

Absences · 1972 · 1 poem

My Great Great Etc. Uncle Patrick Henry

Reckoner · 1986 · 1 poem

The List of Famous Hats5

Worshipful Company of Fletchers · 1994 · 5 poems

Other poems · 13