Dome of the Hidden Pavilion

by James Tate

Overview

The seventeenth book of verse from one of America’s finest and most acclaimed contemporary poets—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

Capturing his inimitable voice—provocative, amusing, understated, and riotous all at once—the poems in Dome of the Hidden Pavilion demonstrate James Tate at his finest. Innovative and fresh, they range in subject from a talking blob to a sobering reminiscence of a war and its aftereffects.

Though they are diverse in scope, a theme of dialogue and communication—and often miscommunication—links these poems. Accessible yet subtly surrealist, filled with dark wit, dry humor, and a deceptive simplicity, Dome of the Hidden Pavilion confirms Tate’s continuing relevance as one of the most celebrated American poets of the modern age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062399236
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/19/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	165
File size:	713 KB

About the Author

James Tate's poems have been awarded the National Book Award, the Pulitzer

Prize, the Wallace Stevens Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, the Yale

Younger Poets Award, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, and

have been translated across the globe. Tate was a member of the American

Academy of Arts and Letters; his many collections include The Lost Pilot, The

Oblivion Ha-Ha, Absences, Distance from Loved Ones, Worshipful Company

of Fletchers, and The Ghost Soldiers. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he made his

home in Pelham, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

i

Mr. Leaves 3

A Largely Questioning Article Offering Few Answers 4

The Baby 6

The Rabbit God 7

My Doctor's Appointment 8

The Blob 10

The Psychiatric Unit 11

Cement 12

The New Mayor 14

The Photograph of Lincoln 15

The 17

My Wife, the Gardener 18

The Wrong Wedding 19

Assignment Haiti 21

The Cows 22

Toy Soldiers 23

The Battlefield 24

Peace 25

The Oilman 27

After The War 29

Conspiracy 30

The Soldiers' Rebellion 31

The Captain 32

The Escape 33

Night-Wandering Animal 34

Explosive Device 35

The Invasion 36

The Mission 38

Investigation 40

The Wrong Man 42

The Grandson 43

Life's Game 44

The Guards 45

The Lost Army 46

The Key to the Universe 47

The Pandas of Wichita 49

Depression 50

The American Dream 51

Home 52

Greatness 54

An Eel on the Line 56

The Leader 57

The Long Drive 58

ii

Low Flying 61

The Three Little Boys 62

The Pearls 64

I Wrote Myself a Letter 66

The Blue Delusion 67

Thefrench Novel 68

That's Not My Duty 69

The Aquatic Ape 70

Some Things I Need 71

Buddha 72

To Russia with Love 74

The Goddess 76

Beer for the Fairies 77

The Moose 79

The Encyclopedia Salesman 80

The Holman Dairy 82

The Friars Club Fellow 84

The Orchid 85

Possible Suspects 86

The Seafaring Boy 87

The Blue Ones 88

The New Opera 89

Brand New Mantra 91

Almost a Saint 92

Dangerous at Night 93

In The Lake 95

The Llama 97

The Great Wall 99

The Interrupted Flow 101

Lost at Sea 102

The Police Captain's Remorse 103

Dome of the Hidden Temple 104

A Walk in the Woods 105

My Home 106

Manual for Self-Improvement 107

Plans to Destroy the World 108

Invisible 109

The Chicago Dead 110

iii

The Little Green Man 113

Rats 114

The Waterfall 115

The Mule 116

Mimi and the Bear 117

Black Widow 118

The Suspect 120

To Hell and Back 121

The Cookie 122

The Green Shutters 123

Love at First Sight 124

Dreaming 125

What are Worms? 126

The Flag 127

Where the Money Is 128

For Rent 130

The Grandmother 131

The Furnace 132

Llamas 133

The Afterlife 134

The Hammer to the Rescue 135

The End of the Line 136

The Dead Animal 138

Tenderizer 139

The Invisible Alligators 140

A Quiet Day on the Porch 141

Plastic Story 142

Editorial Reviews

James Tate…was the rare American poet who managed to make poems that were at once fanciful and grave, mundane and transcendent…Dome of the Hidden Pavilion is often moving and startling. The book feels like a quixotically assembled zoo, yet reading it you may get the feeling, as I did, that it is somehow about illness—about living in the cage of a body that won't cooperate while the mind soldiers on without some of its best capabilities…The world, in Dome of the Hidden Pavilion, is relentless in its slow grind against our bodies and minds. But it's beautiful as well as terrifying…Reading Dome of the Hidden Pavilion, you're reminded that to be located in a body somehow imperiled is a situation worth daydreaming yourself out of, and into the hidden pavilion of poetry.

The New York Times Book Review - Meghan O'Rourke

★ 07/20/2015
Tate (1943–2015), winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize and 1994 National Book Award, interrupts small-town life’s sense of normalcy and stability with the absurd and the surprising in his new collection of short, narrative verse vignettes. He also manages to maintain a strong stylistic consistency without going stale—quite the feat considering the deadpan dialogue and recurring motifs, such as war and domestic spats. But Tate’s (The Eternal Ones of the Dream) masterly storytelling keeps things fresh; even when the reader can anticipate the inevitable absurdist twist in a piece, its delivery is always interesting. Sometimes the oddity is a stranger passing through: “I was sitting on the porch when I watched my neighbors’/ kids walk by on their way to school. One of them turned and waved/ to me. I waved back. That’s when I realized they were zombies.” Other times the odd man out is the protagonist’s thoughts: “My neighbor, Ted, walked over. ‘Are you all right? I saw that/ through my bedroom window. I couldn’t believe it,’ he said. ‘Oh, that was just an imaginary moose. It wasn’t a real one,’ I said.” Tate’s style will be recognizable to readers of his recent few books, but even those unfamiliar should find this whip-smart collection a joy to read. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Dome is Tate at his restless, relentless best - leaving many questions unanswered, and no answer unquestioned.” — Boston Globe

“The rare American poet who managed to make poems that were at once fanciful and grave, mundane and transcendent. . . . His work is singular in American poetry for marrying goofball humor and childish jouissance to a lyricism that never seems cheap or self-serious-an unusual achievement.” — New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

The rare American poet who managed to make poems that were at once fanciful and grave, mundane and transcendent. . . . His work is singular in American poetry for marrying goofball humor and childish jouissance to a lyricism that never seems cheap or self-serious-an unusual achievement.

New York Times Book Review

Dome is Tate at his restless, relentless best - leaving many questions unanswered, and no answer unquestioned.

Boston Globe

05/15/2015
The Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning Tate tends to write intuitive poems in which he follows words wherever they may lead. And although the words generally do lead somewhere, Tate isn't always sure where that place is. Not so in his latest. The dome (of the title) is visible as one reads these prose poems, which journey through life toward the great pavilion in the sky—or as Tate puts it, the Grand Canyon. (One poem calls the pavilion secret, while the book's title dubs it hidden.) This collection is about the journey of life and what one experiences on the way. Whether the narrator is taking a hike, summoning his dead mother, saying his prayers, or hiding in a hole, he's on his way to the grave. The writing style is plain, with few images; Tate depends heavily on word play, free association, and the vernacular. There's no beauty recollected in tranquility here, as Wordsworth might offer. VERDICT Playful to the point of silliness, Tate uses absurdity, surrealism, and humor. He fractures clichés and turns language upside down and inside out. If this is poetry—and even if it isn't—Tate certainly makes the most of it.—C. Diane Scharper, Towson Univ., MD

Library Journal