“Land of Little Sticks” -James Tate

1. “Land of Little Sticks”-James Tate Brandon Wells

2. Explication • Where the wife is scouring the frying pan • and the husband is leaning up against the barn. • Where the boychild is pumping water into a bucket • and the girl is chasing a spotted dog. • The wife is setting up for a dinner • The husband is tired after a day of work • The boy is getting water for dinner • The girl is occupying her time chasing her dog

3. Explication • And the sky churns on the horizon. • A town by the name of Pleasantville has disappeared. • And now the horses begin to shift and whinny, • And the chickens roost, keep looking this way and that. • At this moment something is not quite right. • The sun is setting on the horizon • The darkness is coming over the town • The horses are making noises as it gets dark • The chickens carry on with their normal habits

4. Explication • The boy trundles through the kitchen, spilling water. • His mother removes several pies from the oven, shouts at him. • The girlchild sits down by the fence to stare at the horses. • And the man is just as he was, eyes closed, forehead • against his forearm, leaning up against the barn. • The boy runs inside, not really paying attention to the water spilling • The mother finishes the food and yells at her child making a mess • The girl sits down and admires the beauty of the horse • The man has fallen asleep on the barn

5. Literary Terms Alliteration Cacophony End- Stopped Line Enjambment Imagery Free Verse • Where the wife is scouring the frying pan • and the husband is leaning up against the barn. • Where the boychild is pumping water into a bucket • and the girl is chasing a spotted dog. • And the sky churns on the horizon. • A town by the name of Pleasantville has disappeared. • And now the horses begin to shift and whinny, • and the chickens roost, keep looking this way and that. • At this moment something is not quite right. • The boy trundles through the kitchen, spilling water. • His mother removes several pies from the oven, shouts at him. • The girlchild sits down by the fence to stare at the horses. • And the man is just as he was, eyes closed, forehead • against his forearm, leaning up against the barn.

6. Background • Born in 1943 • Father died when he was 4 months old • Had many men enter his life, but not for long • Chancellor in the Academy of American Poets • Won many awards including the Pulitzer Prize • His work is classified as postmodernism and neo-surrealism

7. Personal Analysis • Loss of Fatherly figure • Response to Nuclear Warfare

8. Critical Analysis • “Tate addresses socio-political subjects in his poems as well, highlighting the ways in which reality is often more absurd and dreamlike than dreams. ‘Land of Little Sticks, 1945,’ for example, the opening poem from Constant Defender (1983), mythically depicts the moment when the first atomic bombs were dropped, and suggests that the world will never be the same” (Cengage). • “… James Tate is haunted by that nuclear summer fifty years ago as an American Gothic vision irradiated by the bomb’s early light:” (Bradbury).

9. Works Cited • Bradbury, S. “Atomic Ghost, Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age.” Manoa 8.1 (1996): 172-176. New Writing from the Pacific Coast of South America, Jstor. Web. 6 May 2013. • Google Images • "Introduction." Poetry for Students. Vol. 15. Gale Cengage, .eNotes.com. 13 May, 2013 <http://www.enotes.com/smart-final/> • “James Tate, The Art of Poetry No. 92.” The Paris Review. Summer 2006. 13 May 2013 <http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5636/the-art-of-poetry-no-92-james-tate> • “James Tate.” 13 May 2013 <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/70> • Tate, James. Constant Defender. Ecco, 1983.