
Speakers in James Tate's poems are and are not like those we know: a man's meditation on gardening renders him witless; another man traps theories and then lets them loose in a city park; a nun confides that it was her / cowboy pride that got her through; a gnome's friend...

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,...