David Kirby’s poem “Monte (Peace In Our Time)” is a whimsical look at the beauty of mistakes and mishaps that is catapulted from a quirky imagining to a comical solution for one of life’s most prominent tragedies.
Finding the Voice
“Monte (Peace In Our Time)” is formed as a single lengthy stanza with erratically composed line lengths. The speaker introduces itself as a person that had received “a postcard from Joyce Carol Oates” (1). Immediately, the speaker is associated with Kirby himself, a well-established critic, because in line 2 the speaker mentions that it had “reviewed favorably” the novel “Unholy Loves”. Joyce Carol Oates most likely does not write to Mr. Everyman about a review and the association is cemented thusly.
Not “Canadian”, “Conradian”
After establishing the identity of the speaker the vehicle for the poem is established because in the “postcard” from Joyce Carol Oates, Dr. Oates mentions that she thought that the reviewer/speaker “’must be a fellow Canadian’” (4). The speaker is amusingly taken aback and inwardly retorts in a sarcastic tone, “That’s me, all right” (5). The comedy is layered because neither Oates nor Kirby is Canadian and dramatic irony is apparent to well-read/investigative readers. The speaker then shifts to a reminiscence about finding
the card again
while cleaning up some old files
that I saw she had written
not “Canadian” but “Conradian” (8-11).
The mistake resonates because it is one that most every reader has committed. While reading the speaker had made an error of decoding, but the minor error had trickled down to form a spring of recollections about other mistakes of informational synthesis. Shortly thereafter, the audience is introduced to “Monte”.
Who is “Monte”?
The character of “Monte” has sprung from a remembrance of the misspelling of “Monet” from a “poster” that the speaker had seen and this misspelling triggered an imagining about a fellow (14-15). From its imagination the speaker
could see this Monte in his plaid jacket
and his open collar and his medallion
nestled in his chest hairs just so,
calling for a corned beef sandwich (16-19).
What Did You Call the “General”?
The speaker then transitions effortlessly to the punch line which is drawn from the continued imaginings of misspellings, but this time the mistake is much more egregious, or is it? Speaking directly to the audience the speaker asks what if “you called a general ‘Genital’” and this chimera soon begets “gunfire / and […] screaming” (24, 27-28). After the violence the “general” and “his bodyguards” are taken “right out of the picture” (27). The result is “Bingo, no more war” (30).
Whoops! Make the Best of It
Everyone makes mistakes. This has been said over and over again, but it is a rigid truth. Sometimes mistakes can bring about the worst possible circumstances leading to death, lost love, injury, etc., but other times a mistake can catalyze a series of realizations that can drive a joke straight down the road of error to a solution for life’s greatest tribulations. In Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust once said that, “Error, by force of contrast, enhances the triumph of Truth”.
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