John Ashbery's Status as a Modern Poet Shown Through Vendler
In accordance with many differing authors, modern, post-theological poets, in an arena where God is supposedly dead or running things inadequately, have many assorted roles. In her essay, "Keats and the Use of Poetry," Helen Vendler shows that poets may write to display historical themes, to use representation, "an incarnation of the passions," to teach others virtues, or simply to maintain the beauty of verse (Vendler 117). However, poets are not firmly held to these styles about which she speaks; rather, postmodern poets themselves are disoriented, looking for their place in a society where they are not popular, and in many peoples' eyes, not wanted. Yet although poets do not firmly cling to the loose conditions of Vendler, they can still be abstractly applied to modern poets like John Ashbery. Poets are no longer held to the ideological restrictions that were prevalent in prior times, but the new freedom is more of a restriction than the limitations created by the acceptance and popularity of God. John Ashbery represents this postmodern example of the poet; his thoughts at times seem scattered amongst his characters, interactions, and comments, which itself is a representation of the perplexing notion of the present day
Ashbery again exhibits the multiplicity of designs for poets with the next two lines stating, "May is raving. Its recapitulations / exhaust the soil. Across the marsh / some bird misses its mark, walks back, sheepish, cheeping" (Ashbery 8-10). While May is in fervor, the bird "misses its mark," walking back shamefaced, quietly. While in one instance, May is in a great state of emotion, even wild, the bird softly walks back, devoid of emotion save its sheepishness. Such are the pangs of poetry in the modern world. While the great poets of generations past are lauded with great love, affection, and emotion just like May, the modern poet "misses its mark," and must "sheepishly" return, hearkening to the example of the jungle. The poet cannot see what lies behind the next tree, and must blindly travel further. Sometimes he succeeds. Sometimes he fails. Inevitably he will fail, and that failure is met with shame, just as the bird experiences. The second stanza begins, "We are expelled into the dust of our decisions / Knowing it would be this way hasn't / made any of it easier to understand, or bear" (Ashbery 5-7). Again there is a pushing forward and a pulling back theme involved with this poem. Being expelled into the dust can only mean that while we push forward, we are only being pulled backwards into the dust we leave behind. Postmodern poets must realize that, with this post-theological thought, there is no specific way in which they must travel. The way has been established by the likes of Vendler, but the way deviates, which is not so explicitly defined by Vendler or any other critic. There can no longer be a set path through which poets can compose; rather, the path is more like a jungle in which poets stand, armed only with a machete. They are lost, the path needing to be scythed, with each poet traveling a different way. Helen Vendler makes numerous claims about the modern poet's necessary means of composing. Ashbery follows some, and strays from others. In a strictly thematic perspective, Ashbery is far off of Vendler's ideas. Vendler states that, "unless [the poet] pursues things to their "symbol-essences," he will not be able to communicate with ages later than his own" (Vendler 124). Ashbery does this in "Spring Cries;" the whole poem is a metaphor, but also in individual instances he inserts the "symbol-essences" of objects. "We are expelled into the dust of our decisions," represents the dual forces acting upon poets a
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Approximate Word count = 1667
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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