Ashbery Merchant

As I was doing some background research about John Ashbery  I read in several articles that one of his aims when writing poetry was to write poems that not even critics could talk about. I think that is a very powerful statement and says a lot about how he has chosen to express his poems. I think Ashbery utilizes nuances of the English language such as punctuation and capitalization—nuamces that are meant to make reading more clear—to write these convoluted sentences that could either mean a million different things or they could mean nothing at all. Ashbery also heavily relies on word placement and font so that he can pick and choose where he wants his reader’s attention to be as they are reading his work. For example in his poem the White Paper he has 48 words arranged in 11 lines centered on the page and it is literally surrounded by white paper the poem reads:

                                                                A WHITE PAPER

                                                               

                                                                And if he thought that

                                                                All was foreign—

                                                                As, gas and petrol, en-

                                                                gine full of seeds, barking to hear the night

                                                                The political contaminations

                                                                Of what he spoke

                                                                Spotted azaleas brought to meet

                                                                him Sitting next day

                                                                The judge, emotions,

                                                                The crushed paper heaps.

In this poem I feel like the poet is trying to get his readers to pay attention to the white paper that the poem is written on instead of the actual poem. When I read this poem the first time I could not figure out any type of meaning. It made me think that the formatting Ashbery used has to do more with the meaning then the words. By surrounding the words with a ton of White Space the text forces you to pay very close attention to what it says just because words seem “scarce” on the page and the brain wants to try and make sense of words it reads. On the other hand it can also be that Ashbery is trying to make a point that in life we are surrounded by white space and that we have to be careful who we allow ourselves to meet with because one wrong person could “crush the paper [of life] heaps”   Ashbery reminds me strongly of Mallarme’s writing in how they both heavily rely on form to convey their message of the actual words. In his poem Rain Ashbury has his words formatted on the page so that the poem looks like falling rain scattered across the page or reminds you of a bad storm that left everything scattered and out of order.  He really makes it hard for someone to try and find meaning in his work because a lot of his poems read like sentences where someone came in and rearranged the words  so that the sentence looses all meaning. I do believe that critics would have a hard time talking about the actual content of Ashbery’s poems .

Ashbery

John Ashbery is among the most popular contemporary American poets. He was part of the avant-garde movement and thus developed a very unconventional form of poetry. In The Tennis Court Oath, a collection of his poems, Ashbery utilizes interesting techniques to construct his lines. In my opinion, Ashbery’s poems were not difficult to read but instead difficult to obtain a clear meaning out of. Although the form and construction of lines in John Cage’s writing was not traditional, he still had a distinctive approach; his approach was explicit and identifiable. With Ashbery on the other hand, it is tricky to pin point exactly what approach he is taking to construct his lines. But based on some reoccurring themes and patterns, we sense an underlying surrealist disposition in his poems.

Initially when one starts to read his poems, the first line makes sense, but as soon as you move to the next line, there is a sudden shift in subject. In the poem, “The Tennis Court Oath,” for example, he begins by writing, “what had you been thinking about” which as we normally read seems to make sense, but in the second line, he writes, “the face studiously bloodied.” The structure of the line and type of phrase that we would expect to see following the first line is not there, there is but rather something odd and clearly not fitting here. This constant occurrence of jumping from one subject to the next after every line creates dysfunction. However, this technique is reflective of surrealism. The thematic shifts that commonly occur in his poems are parallel to the process of thinking. Our thoughts are not fluid and consistent, but instead they are moving from one idea to the next without any conscious effort. That is simply how the mind works and Ashbury’s alternations between connected and disconnected lines mimics this human process.  

Furthermore, there is evidence that unlike some other poets that we have studied like James Joyce, Ashbery puts a great emphasis on the meaning of the word rather than the sound. Often times, his poems do not follow a clear rhyme scheme; he instead uses his lines to pose contradictions. He juxtaposes themes frequently throughout his poems. One example of this that stood out to me was at the end of his poem “How Much Longer will I be able to Inhabit the Devine Sepulcher…” In the last two stanza of this poem, he talks about sand. But in the first stanza, he presents the image of darkness along side the sand and in the second stanza, he presents it along side the image of light.

Ashbery also tends to us imagery that is powerful yet paradoxical. In “The Suspended Life” for instance, he uses the phrase the “igloo sun.” While this may be easy to imagine, we see that these two images are very different from one another; an igloo often evokes the feeling of coldness whereas the sun symbolizes warmth. In presenting theses two images together, Ashbery develops a certain degree of strangeness in his writing. 

Ashbury-Joan Shang

I felt that the manner in which Cage approached poetry writing reflects the nature of human thought processes. That is, we often experience haphazard jumps between one thought to another in a similar way that one topic unfolds into another in the poems of “The Tennis Court Oath.” Yet, at the time, employing a technique that resonates the nature of the thought process makes it very difficult to understand the poem. The following selection from the text illustrates this:  

“You are freed

            including barrels

head of the swan      forestry

the night and stars fork

That is, he said

            And rushing under the hoops of

Equations probable

            Absolute mush          the right

entity chain store     sewer opened their books

            The flood dragged you” (Ashbury, 34).

In this particular selection of text, we observe the rapid shifts between subjects such as “swan,” then jumping to “forestry,” then “Equations,“ “chain store,” and “sewer.” The way that these topics are situated within the text obscures the directionality and coherence of the poems. That is, just when we think that we have found the poem’s flow and are progressing in one direction, Asbury throws out something new that completely spins us in another direction. For example, reading this line “And rushing under the hoops of” presents the reader with an action (“rushing”) and a setting (“under the hoops of”), yet when we reach a new line, we find ourselves facing a dead end. This scene that was set up by the preceding line was not concluded in any way. The statement “Equation probable” serves as a signal of a new direction. Personally, I saw no connection between these juxtaposed lines, which makes it very difficult to grasp the meaning of the poem.

Similarly, haphazard jump occurs within a single line. For example, we go from “chain store” and then “sewer opened their books” (34). The only thing that separates the two phrases is an elongated space. Yet the same effect is achieved as in the previously discussed quotation, in which the new phrase/statement skews the tangent set up by the previous phrase “chain store.” Just when we think that we are about to achieve understanding, another phrase catches us and throws us off course again. Thus, Ashbury uses elements of randomness that ultimately de-familiarize the reader with any image by taking it out of context. This makes it particularly difficult to understand the text as we view coherence through the window of organization and structure. Here, however, the contextual organization and structure collapses each time, line after line. 

Just as there were characteristics of Ashbury’s poem that made the text difficult to understand, there were other aspects that made it easier to read. That is, the author often uses personification that ultimately animates an object, which creates a vivid image in the reader’s mind. For example, “the sewer opened their books” creates a weird but still very powerful image in our minds. Similarly, “the flood dragged you” has the same effect. In this way, Ashbury grounds these images in something concrete for the reader to grasp. Yet, he uproots these images just as quickly as he grounds them and deviates to something new.

Ashbery-Michelle Wolff

In my opinion, the lines in John Ashbery’s The Tennis Court Oath are very difficult to connect. When I read parts of the text, I was unsure how to connect the lines in order to make some sort of sense as to what Ashbery meant. However, as I read some of the excerpts I started to look for clues that could possibly help me in connecting the lines. Some portions were definitely easier to understand than other portions. In a specific section from a part titled, “Thoughts of a Young Girl,” Ashbery writes:

“It is such a beautiful day I had to write you a letter

From the tower, and to show I’m not mad:
            I only slipped on the cake of soap of the air

And drowned in the bathtub of the world…” (Ashbery 14).

To me, this portion of The Tennis Court Oath made the most sense so far out of any of the other parts. I could sort of gain a sense of what the author was saying. This sounded the most “simple” out of any of the other parts. One small detail that helped me connect one line to the other was definitely the use of the “:.” In the phrase “From the tower, and to show I’m not mad:” was definitely a more obvious sign that there was something in the next line that would have to do with this line. This was mostly because that type of punctuation is usually a way to signal that a list is to follow the colon. Also, another thing that Ashbery does in this portion and not always in others is he uses words that would make sense following the line above to start the next line. For example, from the “Thoughts of a Young Girl,” piece, Ashbery writes:

“And the smile still played about her lips

As it has for centuries. She always knows…” (Ashbery 14). 

            If one were to read this part aloud or even in his or her head, that person could see that this totally makes sense. Ashbery chose to start the second line with “As.” This makes it easier for the reader to connect the first line to the second line. This is because it flows and makes perfect sense. However, not all of Ashbery’s lines do this. In his portion titled, “The Tennis Court Oath,” he writes:

            “I thought going down to mail this

            of the kettle you jabbered as easily in the yard…” (Ashbery 11).

            This part is very different from the previous parts from “Thoughts of a Young Girl.” When this sentence is read aloud, it does not flow at all. It barely makes sense or barely sounds like proper speech. I think this makes it harder to understand and harder to figure out a way to connect the first line to the second line. I think that it is a possibility that by making some lines easier to read, Ashbery wanted us to understand lines easier or quicker than other lines.

Ashbery

            Ashbery constructs his lines in a unique way that is unusually seen in most poetry. His lines are not continuous line by line. Each line is mostly its own idea. There are topical shifts between lines or between stanzas. The only rhythms present across the lines are how the lines sound word wise. Enjambment also takes place within all of his poems and he uses this technique to introduce new themes or ideas within the poem. There are certain cues that give you hints into how to read his poems. For instance the word “and” is sometimes used in the beginning of a new line and in this instance this means that the current line and the line before it connect.  Also Ashbery tends to capitalize the first word on a line and this means that a new idea is beginning. When he wants us to think about something in particular he puts ellipses after the word. This causes the reader to think about what was just said. Ashbery uses punctuation in a weird way in his poems, for instance he will open a quote with a quotation mark but that will be the only one used. In the poems when a line starts with a lower case word then that hints that the previous line connects to it. Although it makes it easier to understand the poems if you read the lines separately because he even claimed that he wrote his poems like life. Life is known to be unpredictable and you never know what’s going to happen day top day. Ashbery’s lines are constructed in that same sense where you never know what to expect each line.  Surrealism structure and language of the poetry mimics our thought process.  Sometimes he places his lines sporadically across the page which could indicate that he wants readers to read the poem in a certain fashion. In the following passage we see an example of how Ashbery places his lines/words in a particular way:

            “The centennial         Before we can

                                            old         eat

            members with their chins

                                    so high up              rats

                      relaxing the cruel discussion” (Ashbery, 33)

As seen above, Ashbery also uses spacing to his advantage in his poetry. I think that he does this to space out separate thoughts that he put together. Also it could be another strategy to slow down readers and make them think. One of the more specific things Ashbery does is he connects his separate poems by using reoccurring words such as lilac, moss, tree, sperm, dwarf, etc. They will show up randomly in his poems to add to an image of a specific line. I think this helps readers to understand that there may be an underlying theme across all of the poems and those reoccurring words build towards that.

Ashbery--Flomenbaum

            One of Ashbery’s main points in writing these poems is to confuse people about how they connect ideas together, specifically the words within the lines and the lines within the poem. This type of nonsense is different than other kinds of nonsense we have read in class because it makes a lot of sense but makes no sense at the same time. The reason that it does not make sense is for a number of reasons. For example, in some cases the grammar is a little off, but in other cases the entire sentence does not fit together, yet in other cases it is the entire section and the connections between the lines that make it nonsense. What makes these poems so confusing is that they are so close to being understandable, but there is always something that is not quite right and not attainable.
            One of my favorite parts about these poems is the jumping between ideas, especially between lines. Throughout these poems, Ashbery uses ideas and words that most people would not put together and fills sentences with nonsensical ideas. Somehow, one is still able to read the poems and connect the ideas together in a meaningful way. However, when one takes a step back and looks at the poem and what one has just read, it becomes confusing and is therefore nonsensical. It is difficult to understand how, on the one hand, the ideas in the poem are so graspable, and yet on the other hand, they are so unattainable. Part of the reason for this paradox is that the words, in reality, do not mesh together or work together as a coherent sentence or idea.
            There are a number of ways we read these poems and connect the lines as a result. One of the most important reasons is the punctuation. Ashbery uses punctuation such as periods and commas throughout the poems. At the same time, he often uses enjambment, which allows the lines to flow from one to the next. The problem is that to some extent, it seems as though Ashbery does not want the reader to be able to read from one line to the next and wants to give each line its own unique meaning. However, one cannot help but connect them, especially when a line ends with “and” or when the sentences flow so seamlessly.
            Another point that I find so interesting about Ashbery’s poems is how totally unimportant the actual words are. Regardless of what words are used, the sentence would read relatively the same way. Similarly, it seems as though the meaning of the sentence would be the same regardless of the words used. The way I understand it, Ashbery is making a point that in many regards the actual words people use and what they say is irrelevant. Ultimately, people will accept what others say regardless of what they are actually saying. People want to understand one another and what is written. Hence, the reader’s brain will make sense of these poems in any way it can. In some cases, that means connecting the sentences together and in other cases it means keeping the lines separate.

Ashbery--Amy

     In his book of poems, "The Tennis Court Oath," John Ashbery plays with structure and syntax. Ashbery's manipulation of form and structure is apparent in his poem, "Rain." The poem is divided into many short stanzas, some of them four or five lines, others only a line or two, which seem to float across the page like drips of rain falling from the sky. Ashbery manipulates the structure of the poem in order to illustrate the title of the poem.
      Within the poem itself, there is an interest in breaks and transitions. For instance, the poem is divided into four sections, each one titled with a Roman numeral. But even within the lines and stanzas themselves, there are abrupt breaks and transitions. Take, for instance, the first two lines: "The spoon of your head/crossed by livid stems." These two lines make up the first stanza of the poem. The two lines seem to be describing the same image, however it is ambiguous as to what "the spoon of the head" looks like and what sort of "livid stems" are crossing that head. Because Ashbery chooses to use the word "crossed" rather than "crosses," the sentence is grammatically incomplete, and the reader is held in suspense, expecting the next line to complete the sentence and perhaps add clarity to the image of the "head" and "stems." However, the proceeding stanza is "The chestnuts large clovers wiped." The capitalization of "The" implies that this is a new sentence or idea, even though the previous stanza did not end on a period. Also, syntactically speaking, there is no continuity between "crossed by livid stems" and "The chestnuts large clovers wiped." If one disregards the grammatical structure of these two 'sentences,' there is perhaps some continuity between the "livid stems" and the "clovers," however, the syntactic disconnect between the two lines makes this connection ambiguous. It is as if each stanza, or line even, is a separate raindrop or separate idea, and all of the raindrops are falling into place in a disjointed, broken order.
     Ashbery's disjointed style keeps the reader on her toes, however, the poem is not completely unapproachable. Although ideas and sentences are constantly shifting, the interesting and vivid poetry keeps the reader as grounded as is possible in a poem such as this. What is most interesting about the imagery is that it is vivid, but still has an aspect of ambiguity. Again, consider the opening lines, "The spoon of your head/crossed by livid stems." When Ashbery writes, "the spoon of your head," he is clearly has a very specific image in mind, however, different readers may picture "the spoon of the head" differently. Same goes for the "livid stems." "Livid" and "stems" are specific enough words that they conjure up a distinct image in the reader's head, however they are still ambiguous enough that no two people will have the same interpretation of "livid."
     By playing with imagery, syntax, and structure, Ashbery is able to create interesting poetry that is both specific and ambiguous, jarring, yet not completely arbitrary.