Everything you need to understand or teach Smart and Final Iris by James Tate.
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Tate's title, "Smart and Final Iris," refers to the name of a warehouse grocery chain that operates over 214 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Florida, and Mexico. The name is derived from the company's founders, Jim Smart and Hildane Final. Iris is the name of the company's private brand label introduced in 1895. In 1953, after acquiring its leading competitor, Haas, Baruch, and Co., Smart and Final became Smart & Final Iris Co. The obscurity of the title makes it a code of sorts because readers have to figure out what it has to do with the poem. This tactic makes sense because the poem concerns itself with the idea of code names and what they represent. The Pentagon is the building in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., that houses the United States Department of Defense and all four branches of the military—Army, Navy, Air Force,... View more of the Smart and Final Iris Summary
James (Vincent) Tate