John Ashbery and American PoetryA discussion of the poetry of John Ashbery. Showing that a sense of occasion - the sense that the poem should be fit for its occasion - was a binding principle for the poets of the New York School, David Herd traces the development of Ashbery's poetry in the light of this idea. The book is a study of Ashbery's career and also a history of the period in which that career has taken shape. The development of Ashbery's poetic is set against such culturally defining issues as: the institutionalisation of literature; the rise and fall of the avant-garde; mass culture; Vietnam; the absence of a divine presence; the erosion of tradition; the growth of celebrity; and the emergence of AIDS. Ashbery's responses to such issues are set against the work of Lowell, Berryman, O'Hara, Koch, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Oppen and Larkin. |
Contents
the early poetry and its backgrounds | 26 |
collaboration and the New York School | 52 |
The Tennis Court Oath and the poetics | 69 |
Copyright | |
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aesthetic American poetry argued argument artist Ashbery poem Ashbery's poetry Ashbery's writing Ashberyan attention Auden avant-garde background become Berryman bery collaborations contemporary Convex Mirror critical culture David Lehman develop Doctor Zhivago Double Dream Dream of Spring Eliot environment experience fact feel Flow Chart Frank O'Hara Haibun Houseboat Days Ibid idea interview Jarrell John Ash John Ashbery Kenneth Koch kind Koch language lecture lives Locus Solus Lowell means novel Nut-Brown Maid observed one's painting Paris Parmigianino's Pascal Pasternak perhaps poem's poet poet's poetic precisely problem prose question Raymond Roussel reader reading Review Rivers and Mountains Roussel scene Schuyler seems Self-Portrait sense of occasion sentence Shadow Train Shoptaw situation Skaters Sontag speak Stevens suggests tells Tennis Court Oath things Three Poems tion tradition understand voice W.H. Auden words York School Zhivago