Death of a Poet Summary and Analysis

"Death of a Poet" begins with a couplet attributed to F.X. Leach that read, "In the coffin of ice, I sleep naked / In the tunnel of fire, I drink." The narrator arrived in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The town was devastated because the football team, the Packers, had just lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. The woman at the rental car counter was especially devastated, and didn't seem able to help the narrator get a rental car. So, the narrator "gave her a taste of the long knuckle" and took a key to a car for himself.

The narrator drove to the trailer home of his friend, F.X. Leach. The narrator is in a celebratory mood, because they both bet against the Packers. However, Leach confessed that at the last minute, during a Packers...