Essay Questions

To what once-mysterious event does the poem “Elegy for a Real Golfer” refer?

The titular subject of this poem is professional golfer Payne Stewart, two-time winner of the U.S. Open. In addition to being one of the finest players of his day, Stewart was also famous for occasionally wearing old-fashioned vintage golfing attire. The third stanza of the poem’s allusions to a plane disaster references Stewart’s death which at the time ranked among the most mysterious in recent memory. The imagery of “automatic pilot” guiding the aircraft like a “blind man doing the breast stroke” until “fuel ran out” leaving a “charred hole” on the ground in South Dakota essentially tells the story of how Stewart and several other passengers all lay unconscious as their small private jet basically flew on autopilot for four hours before running out of fuel and crashing. The poem’s description of “asphyxiated cargo” chillingly but accurately describes the state of all aboard the plane who had lapsed into unconsciousness due to a loss of pressurization in the cabin so sudden and unexpected that neither the crew nor passengers had time to use oxygen to retain consciousness.

What lesson does the speaker learn in Corinth, MS in the poem of the same name?

"Corinth, MS” places the speaker in the Mississippi town of Corinth which is located just south of the border with Tennessee. The poem explains how the town was a crossroads for two different rail lines which made it prime target for both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War. More background information is given to the reader: Gen. Grant won the battle for control of Corinth and the desire to exploit its wartime significance for economic gain has always been overshadowed by the much more famous battlefields of Shiloh, about an hour away by car. The poem ends with the speaker observing that he is alone in visiting the historically significant train depot in Corinth. The speaker seems to be making a statement about the absurd futility of war which only succeeds in creating tourist destinations that are themselves dependent upon marketing and propaganda while the actual blood shed and lives lost fade almost into meaninglessness.

“An Oddly Lovely Day Alone” almost qualifies as a singularly iconic example of the typical content of an Updike poem. What exactly happens in this poem?

Updike is not a poet given to writing about grand mythological epics. He is a chronicler of the mundane whose subjects range from waiting in airports to the rocky landscapes of New England. One may argue that what happens in an Updike work of verse is not particularly important or memorable, but it is very difficult to argue that, unlike in the work of many poets, nothing at all happens. Truthfully speaking, the average reader is probably no likely to find what Updike chronicles in this poem all that odd or lovely, but it is important to remember he is a very famous and respect writer whose day is likely thought to be much more action-filled. A timeline of what occurs over the course of this poem is like a greatest hits collection of other shorter poems by the author: his kids are sent off to school, his wife leaves for an appointment with a Boston hair stylist, he reads a book, converses with the exterminator, eats leftover pizza for lunch, runs the dishwasher, eats a box of raisins and reads some more, speaks with a woman calling on the phone, gets the newspaper and readers about an earthquake striking Iran just after the Shah escapes into exile, and finally watches as snow begins to fall.