The Lost Pilot by James Tate

Ben Remillard

James Tate (1943-Present)

James Vincent Appleby was born on December 8, 1943

His father died in Germany at the age of twenty-two, five months after Tate was born. Tate wrote The Lost Pilot around the same age as his father’s death

After his father’s death, Tate’s mother remarried twice. Tate took the surname of his second stepfather

Tate received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Selected Poems, in 1992

He has taught poetry at UMass Amherst since 1971

The Lost Pilot BY JAMES TATE

for my father, 1922-1944

Your face did not rot like the others—the co-pilot,

for example, I saw him

yesterday. His face is corn- mush: his wife and daughter,

the poor ignorant people, stare

as if he will compose soon. He was more wronged than Job.

But your face did not rot

like the others—it grew dark, and hard like ebony;

the features progressed in their

distinction. If I could cajole you to come back for an evening,

down from your compulsive

orbiting, I would touch you, read your face as Dallas,

your hoodlum gunner, now,

with the blistered eyes, reads his braille editions. I would

touch your face as a disinterested

scholar touches an original page. However frightening, I would discover you, and I would not

turn you in; I would not make you face your wife, or Dallas,

or the co-pilot, Jim. You

could return to your crazy orbiting, and I would not try

to fully understand what

it means to you. All I know is this: when I see you,

as I have seen you at least

once every year of my life, spin across the wilds of the sky

like a tiny, African god,

I feel dead. I feel as if I were the residue of a stranger’s life,

that I should pursue you.

My head cocked toward the sky, I cannot get off the ground,

and, you, passing over again,

fast, perfect, and unwilling to tell me that you are doing well, or that it was mistake

that placed you in that world, and me in this; or that misfortune

placed these worlds in us.

And now, James Burg will read

The Lost Pilot BY JAMES TATE

for my father, 1922-1944

Your face did not rot like the others—the co-pilot,

for example, I saw him

yesterday. His face is corn- mush: his wife and daughter,

the poor ignorant people, stare

as if he will compose soon. He was more wronged than Job.

But your face did not rot

like the others—it grew dark, and hard like ebony;

the features progressed in their

distinction. If I could cajole you to come back for an evening,

down from your compulsive

orbiting, I would touch you, read your face as Dallas,

your hoodlum gunner, now,

with the blistered eyes, reads his braille editions. I would

touch your face as a disinterested

scholar touches an original page. However frightening, I would discover you, and I would not

turn you in; I would not make you face your wife, or Dallas,

or the co-pilot, Jim. You

could return to your crazy orbiting, and I would not try

to fully understand what

it means to you. All I know is this: when I see you,

as I have seen you at least

once every year of my life, spin across the wilds of the sky

like a tiny, African god,

I feel dead. I feel as if I were the residue of a stranger’s life,

that I should pursue you.

My head cocked toward the sky, I cannot get off the ground,

and, you, passing over again,

fast, perfect, and unwilling to tell me that you are doing well, or that it was mistake

that placed you in that world, and me in this; or that misfortune

placed these worlds in us.

Organization

16 stanzas No Rhyme Scheme No Rhythm and Meter

The Speaker

The Speaker of the poem is the author. This comes from both the subtitle “For my

father, 1922-1944,” and the fact that Tate’s father was shot down while doing bombing runs across Germany during WWII.

Breaking Up the Stanzas

Stanzas 1-4 The Speaker compares the severely disfigured

face of the co-pilot with the pilot. The Pilot’s face became dark and hard, making

him look more distinguished while the co-pilot is cornmush

Stanzas 5-8 -The Speaker wishes that he could meet with the

pilot, to try and understand and “discover” the Pilot for the first time in his life

Stanzas 9-13 Tate says that if he met with his father, he would not

make him face the people who he affected due to his flying, (His co-pilot, gunner, and wife)

The speaker compares the Pilot to an African god, which shows the reverence Tate has for his father.

Tate describes his desire to follow in his father’s footsteps, being only “the residue of a stranger’s life.” Meaning that the speaker is all that is left of the Pilot’s life

Stanzas 14-16 While the Pilot is always going to be perfect in

what he does, the speaker will never be able to live up to the Pilot’s legacy

The Pilot is unable to tell Tate what he is doing wrong, and unable to tell Tate that it was unfortunate that they both had to lead such misfortunate lives without each other

Diction and Syntax

The poem is a very straightforward with simple language

The poem is written as a formal conversation between the author and the Pilot, asking for one chance to meet with his father Written as if Tate was talking to a stranger, which

his father is

Dominant Imagery

Comparison between Job, who was severely wronged by God for no good reason, and the copilot, whose “face is cornmush”

The Pilot is compared to “a tiny, African god,” which is like a small star that may only show up at certain parts of the year (as I have seen you at least- once every year of my life,- spin across the wilds of the sky) This line shows how Tate tries to connect in some

way with his father at least once a year by trying to discover or understand him

Dominant Imagery

The disfigurement of the co-pilot and the gunner- Both contrast with the image of the Pilot, who, in his death, is more distinguished than he was before his death, while the gunner is blind with blistered eyes and the copilot is severely disfigured

And, in the last three stanzas,“I cannot get off the ground, -and, you, passing over again,- fast, perfect, and

unwilling -to tell me that you are doing-well, or that it was mistake -that placed you in that world, -and me in this; or that misfortune-

placed these worlds in us.”

This passage describes how Tate feels toward his relationship with his father. While the Pilot is always going to remain a near perfect being in Tate’s mind, Tate himself is never going to measure up. Because of his father’s death, the two will always remain without having any idea who the other was

Conclusion

In the poem, Tate tries to ask his father why they are so different in their lives; how Tate’s father can be so successful at what he does while Tate “cannot get off the ground.” Tate is left without any answers, being forced to live without knowing why they were both born into such different worlds without knowing each other. The Pilot then is always going to be a mystery to Tate; someone who the speaker will try and follow after but never be the same as. Being unable to understand or meet his father, the Pilot will remain only as a revered image that Tate has set up in his mind.