John Ashbery

The argument was presented in class about Ashbery's work not really being poetry. This really upset me and brought about some bigger questions of art and poetry. Is poetry art? What is poetry? Is Ashbery's work considered word play? That just kind of pissed me off but most of the class agrees that is indeed poetry. Poetry does not have to be a certain thing and that is what is so beautiful about it. There is no structure or rules that bind the poets making them all unique and beautiful. The page is no longer the boundry for poetry. There is poetry on desks, in bathroom stalls, on the internet, in music, spoken word. It is art it is progressing and it is what continues to make modern poetry modern.

I liked the way Ashbery was able to bring you to a place or a particular scene and a moment in time yet still be in the moment. The popculture refrences and jargon of the time kind of put a time stamp on it and make it dated but the reflection on those incidents allows us to question ourselves. The modern structure of rambling on but still making sense is his contribution to progressing the art.

The poem that I am going to look at briefly is Wet Casements and it is a stream of conscience that I see as an entertaining and more readable for me.

This poem starts out by the speaker seemingly peering into a window where he sees a woman with all of her pretty little things. And turns to look into this woman's past and how she came to be "drifting" through. The speaker has turned the attention to himself saying presumably that he is the one who is looking at the past wishing he hadn't lost that small part of himself that flash in the pan. The speaker refuses to let it hold him down and uses everything holding him down as motivation for the future and where he is going. This goes in like 4 directions all coming back to one thing. It is really inspiring to read a poem where the past can't hold you down and things are created from mistakes.