Smart and Final Iris (Themes)

Themes

Language and Meaning

Modern poetry has long been considered a rarified form of expression, accessible only to those trained in the “art” of interpretation. In this sense, it can be seen as a code needing deciphering. “Smart and Final Iris” alludes to poetry’s reputation as a difficult art by making a poem out of the very subjects of obscurity and codes. The title of the poem highlights this fact. Just as the U.S. military uses words bearing little discernible logic to the events they signify, so too does Tate use a title with no seeming logical relationship to the poem it names. In copying the military’s naming tactics, however, Tate makes poetry out of them. Although “Smart and Final Iris” alludes to a chain of grocery warehouses — something most readers would not know — it is also a somewhat fitting image for nuclear apocalypse. The image of the nuclear mushroom cloud is flower-like, and the words “smart” and “final” can be read as both ironic (what’s smart about dropping bombs?), and descriptive of a nuclear holocaust. By appropriating the Pentagon’s naming practices, Tate is able to show the irony inherent in attempting to imagine the end of human civilization while at the same time working to prevent such an event.

Popular Culture

By referring to and incorporating elements of popular culture into his poem, Tate reconfigures readers’ expectations about poetry’s subject matter. Historically, critics have judged “great” poetry to be that which transcends historical circumstances and says something universal about the human condition. “Smart and Final Iris,” however, is rooted in history and American culture. Readers need to know what the Pentagon is, the American military’s practice of giving code names to operations, the double meaning of the title, and something about the fear of nuclear war to fully appreciate the poem. Arguably, such topical subject matter also makes the poem more immediately relevant to readers’ lives than, say, another love poem.

Cold War

Historians often date the Cold War from the end of World War II until 1989, with the opening of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The term refers to the struggle for power between Western powers and Communist countries during this time. The nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States is a direct result of the Cold War, and the scenarios Tate satirically describes would not be imaginable without the race. In the second half of the twentieth century, many of the images and much of the discourse on nuclear war in popular culture assumed it would result from a clash between the superpowers.