Allen Tate's Agrarianism: a Defense of Allegiance

Abstract

    Allen Tate (1899-1979) was born in Kentucky .As a Southerner he was unwilling to be like his people who were unaware of their imperfections. He realized that lack of belief in tradition which was the illness of the modern mind. It turned life to hell with a variety of tortures. Hence his agrarianism was a call to the Southerners to retreat to their tradition.It was a revolt against industrialism as an enslaving power, a destroyer threatening the very existence of human society. His agrarianism proved to be an image of life man should desire, a life imbued with tradition and belief; tradition in its historical and religious sense shapes the spirit of protest in his  poetry. It is a protest against the kind of life modern man attached himself to, which dehumanized him resulting in spiritual fragmentation. Tate did what none of his fellow Agrarians attempted, to turn Agrarian concerns inward, a quest for identity , for spiritual roots and affirmation. This is what makes his agrarianism a defense of personal allegiance, besides its historical , social and religious implications.