Dream On by James Tate (1998)

Dream On
by James Tate (1998)

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.
They go to baseball games with the greatest of ease. 5
and play a few rounds of golf as if it were nothing.
These same people stroll into a church
as if that were a natural part of life.
Investing money is second nature to them.
They contribute to political campaigns 10
that have absolutely no poetry in them
and promise none for the future.
They sit around the dinner table at night
and pretend as though nothing is missing.
Their children get caught shoplifting at the mall 15
and no one admits that it is poetry they are missing.
The family dog howls all night,
lonely and starving for more poetry in his life.
Why is it so difficult for them to see
that, without poetry, their lives are effluvial. 20
Sure, they have their banquets, their celebrations,
croquet, fox hunts, their sea shores and sunsets,
their cocktails on the balcony, dog races,
and all that kissing and hugging, and don’t
forget the good deeds, the charity work, 25
nursing the baby squirrels all through the night,
filling the bird feeders all winter,
helping the stranger change her tire.
Still, there’s that disagreeable exhalation
from decaying matter, subtle but ever present. 30
They walk around erect like champions.
They are smooth-spoken and witty.
When alone, rare occasion, they stare
into the mirror for hours, bewildered.
There was something they meant to say, but didn’t: 35
“And if we put the statue of the rhinoceros
next to the tweezers, and walk around the room three times,
learn to yodel, shave our heads, call
our ancestors back from the dead–”
poetry wise it’s still a bust, bankrupt. 40
You haven’t scribbled a syllable of it.
You’re a nowhere man misfiring
the very essence of your life, flustering
nothing from nothing and back again.
The hereafter may not last all that long. 45
Radiant childhood sweetheart,
secret code of everlasting joy and sorrow,
fanciful pen strokes beneath the eyelids:
all day, all night meditation, knot of hope,
kernel of desire, pure ordinariness of life 50
seeking, through poetry, a benediction
or a bed to lie down on, to connect, reveal,
explore, to imbue meaning on the day’s extravagant labor.
And yet it’s cruel to expect too much.
It’s a rare species of bird 55
that refuses to be categorized.
Its song is barely audible.
It is like a dragonfly in a dream–
here, then there, then here again,
low-flying amber-wing darting upward 60
then out of sight.
And the dream has a pain in its heart
the wonders of which are manifold,
or so the story is told.

please answer below 5 questions.
1. Articulate a theme in this poem, in your own words.
2. Who is the speaker of this poem? Explain. In one sentence, what is the poem’s argument?
3. Characterize the images of lines 3-20. What types of images, for the most part, are these? What part do they play in the poem’s argument? Explain.
4. Lines 36-42 there is a different unit of imagery. What are the characteristics and purpose(s) of these?
5. How does the speaker use images to characterize poetry from line 54 (if we take the repetition of “it” in lines 54,55,57 and 58 as descriptions of poetry.) How true is the idea that poetry is a dream with pain in its heart (line 63)? What is the effect of the final line?
Write 3 paragraphs analyzing the following issues from the questions above.
P#1 – Write a paragraph on the poem’s argument, the speaker and the theme. Pull specific lines to prove your point and explain.
P#2 – Write a paragraph about how the images and imagery contribute to the speaker’s argument. Use your answers from # 3 & 4. to help you.
P#3 – Write a paragraph about indeed, what is poetry.

Last Completed Projects