Criticism > Poetry > Tate, Allen - Jeffrey J. Folks (essay date fall 1994)

Tate, Allen - Jeffrey J. Folks (essay date fall 1994)

Jeffrey J. Folks (essay date fall 1994)

SOURCE: Folks, Jeffrey J.. “‘The Archeologist of Memory’: Autobiographical Recollection in Tate's ‘Maimed Man’ Trilogy.” The Southern Literary Journal 27, no. 1 (fall 1994): 51-60.

[In the following essay, Folks considers the unifying stylistic and thematic elements of the “Maimed Man” trilogy, focusing on the autobiographical aspects of the poems.]

The “Maimed Man” trilogy, including “The Maimed Man,” “The Swimmers,” and “The Buried Lake” (1952-53), comprises a terza rima cycle of poems linked not only by form but by connected imagery of mutilation, musical endeavor, baptism, communion of blood and body, and divine light mirrored in nature. The poems are also Tate's poetic autobiography, beginning in a Southern small town (Winchester, Kentucky) and developing from his childhood terror at the disturbing anarchy in nature toward his adult reaction to this perception of...

[The entire page is 4382 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass