James Tate’s poem entitled “Flight” follows the inner-monologue of a speaker that is on the brink of madness. The isolation of an evening begins the speaker on a journey that ends up “in Idaho” (line 26).
On the Wings of the Page
The “Flight” is not taken in an airplane, helicopter, or flying saucer, but, nevertheless, there is a journey taken by both the speaker of the poem and the audience. Eight tercets and a concluding couplet work together pushing the audience briskly towards the bottom of the page. Each stanza is comprised of short lines that break elegantly into one another producing a sort of domino effect. From beginning to end the poem’s form combined with Tate’s diction produce a movement, or a “Flight”, and the journey is oddly convincing
Looking Lightly on the Darker Side of Things
The poem’s movement is underscored by flip-flopping sentence structures that are framed by clever imagery. The poem begins with a dimmed quietude because “Like a glum cricket / the refrigerator is singing” (lines 1-2). The simile comparing the cricket to the refrigerator is believable and strangely comforting, but this feeling does not last because
just as [the speaker is] convinced
that it is the only noise
in the building, a pot falls
in 2B. (lines 3-6).
The above example illustrates the structural flip-flops as the language keeps the audience in suspense because they can’t fully trust the speaker to be serious. Suddenly, the neighbors are making passionate love with their wives for the first time in decades and “The man downhall / is teaching his dog to fly” (lines 11-12). The mental snapshots and sharp sounds create a sensational cacophony that cascades down the page.
The “Flight” from “I” to “We”
As “The racket / multiplies”, the speaker’s focus turns inwards just in the nick of time. Right before the speaker’s perspective shifts even “The fish are disgusted” and they begin to “beat their heads blue / against the cold aquarium” (lines 13, 14-15). The speaker then begins to “lose control” and “dust” becomes “a threat to [his] endurance” (lines 16, 17, 18). But a sort of reverse-bathos effect whereby the whimsical exaggerations become a realistic portrayal of escapism abruptly follows the beginning of the end, and “I” is replaced with “you” and “we” on line 22.
Nowhere Together
Madness dissipates as the speaker’s object of affection appears from the imaginary ether. In the mind of the speaker, the worsening madness is medicated by the imagining of his missing lover. By simply imagining his lover, he suddenly takes “Flight” and they “drive all night” until “dawn” (lines 22, 24). Their imagined destination is the embodiment of the mundane: “Idaho”. Who cares? They are together.
Source:
- Tate, James. "Flight." Selected Poems. [Middletown, Conn.]: Wesleyan UP, 1991. Print.
Matthew Birdsall - Matt is a reader, writer, teacher, lover, and liver, not necessarily in that order. He is eager to read your comments and hopes you enjoy ...
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