Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Ashbery's tenth collection consists of 50 poems, each four quatrains long. Aside from the fact that they are all 16 lines, these poems differ little in style from those in preceding books of his. The most volatile and parodic of poets, Ashbery never seems to run out of new vocabularies to incorporate into his fluid syntax, teasing the mind toward ever-evasive meanings—which has always been the point. Whether rivers, houseboats, or shadow trains, life is constant motion, going nowhere or in circles. The most memorable poem here, 'Paradoxes and Oxymorons,' comments directly on his own art, saying about the poem, 'You miss it, it misses you.' All of these poems are concerned with what Helen Vendler has called 'the recording of successive truths,' each poem being 'a unique interval of consciousness.' Ashbery continues to refuse to separate meaningfulness from randomness or melancholy from cheerfulness as a response to this chaos." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Table of Contents
Houseboat days -- Shadow train -- A wave.