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CRITICAL APPRICATION
OR
“THE PAINTER”
‘The painter’ is an elegant, contemplative, philosophical but a bit enigmatic
poem by John Ashbery. As we know that most of Ashbery’s poem revolve
around the ideas of life, death, soul and art. This poem too revolves around such
ideas but in a unique lighthearted and allegorical style. The poem is a typical
example of John Ashbery’s famous obscurity which is deceptively simple.
Thus, what is the purpose of art? How does the conscience of an artist move
about? What are the various pressures on an artist and above all how an artist
can touch the Zenith height of satisfaction in his art ______ these are the
questions which form crux of the present poem. The magical quality of the
present poem and that of all Ashbery work is the psychological complexity and
soul-stirring analysis which captures the attention of the modern day readers. As
John Bayley asserts:

“Ashbery has great skill in these conventions and something that can
only be called charm, which has increased with each other volume he has
produced”.

In short, the present poem is a typical specimen of Ashbery’s great skill in

analysing the motives that are buried in depth and projecting the nature of art
and thinking of painter in an entirely new way.

The surface story of the poem seems very simple having hardly any idea
of complexity or allegorical thought. We find a painter, (perhaps the poet
himself) sitting between the sea and some huge building behind. The painter
contemplates about his next master piece and decides to portray ‘the sea’ as the
subject of his painting. Somehow, or the other, he could not find on inspiration
that is needed to paint such a complex and baffling painting. Soon leaving
meditation as an artist he wished like an innocent child:

“……..His subject
To rush up the sand, and, seizing a brush
Plaster its own portrait on the canvas”.

Naturally, the wish is too childish to be fulfilled and he remains sitting there
without painting anything. The people watching him busy in his work give him
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their own views about painting. They advise to paint something easier, common
and the way tradition has been going on. Thus, their view is:

“Select for portrait, something less angry, and large”.

However, the painter finds it toilsome to convince the people of his own
conception of art which is:

“That nature, not art, might usurp the canvas”.

To please the people around, decided to change his subject and endeavored to
paint his life. However, he was thoroughly dissatisfied with his efforts. After so
many efforts to ignore the ‘call’ of the painting going on him he returns to the
wild urge burning in him i.e. to paint the sea. Now too much of concentration
and dilemma about the choice of painting had wretched him mentally as well as
emotionally. He lost his energy and vitality even to life up the brush and the
other artists from the building around made fun of him. Some ridiculed his
‘impossible’ idea of painting the sea; the other rebuked him for self love;

“Others declared it a Self-Portrait”

In his dilemma of “To be or not to be”, he is not able to put a single stroke on
the canvas and it is left ‘perfectly white’. Suddenly a huge noise was raised by
the crowd, agitated, at the unique and unacceptable idea, they threw him, his
canvas and the brush into the swallowing waves of the sea. Thus, his desire
remained a futile dream for him and could not be actualized.

Now this is the story around which the whole texture of the poem has
been woven. On the surface reading, it seems a simple tale of a painter who
wanted to paint something but could not, however, a through critical analysis
would suggest that it is not at all. In fact, the poem captures in its every essence,
Ashbery’s conception of an artist, the purpose of art and the very method which
should be adopted by an artist. In this regard, the present poem can be compared
to Robert Browning’s famous art poem: “Fra Lippo Lippi”. In that poem also,
Browning starizes the attitude of the so-called authorities and the traditionalists
who would like their views in art whether it would be painting or poetry should
be followed. The idea of ‘beauty’ in painting depends upon the intellect that
perceives it. According to Hume:

“Beauty in things exist in mind which contemplates them”.

Thus, every genuine artist has his particular way of looking at the beauties of
God and appreciating them. However, any naïve reader may be deceived in
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considering it poem related to the theme of art. The poem can be called a
contrast on three levels:

1. Traditional approach and the modern.

2. Personal will and social conscience.
3. Authority and the masses.

The painter of the present is a conscious artist and knows that:

“The real art lies in conceding art”.

An imitation/copy of the worldly objects in a blind way, may not suit his
purpose. For him, the ‘copy’ of the objects is not the honesty which is
demanded of a conscious artist. The painter of the poem does practice a deeper
conception of art. As Mathew Arnold opines:

“To see things in their beauty is ot see things in their truth”.

To find the truth inherent in the outer surface of beauty may lead someone to go
in the abstract neglecting the concrete. Thus, any innovation in the existing
‘tradition’ may be taken as ‘blasphemy’ by the, mediocre minds ______as
happened with painter of the given poem. This very aspect of the poem can be
called autobiographical one as well. John Ashbery too was harshly critized for
his style of writing_____ even his rank as a poet was challenged by few. The
poet, thus, has endeavored to propagate that a genius and true artist is the one
who challenges the existing norms and finds their own way of identification. As
Iqbal once said:

“Powerful men create environment and feeble have to adjust themselves in

it”.

In short, if we visualize the poem in this context then the ‘sea’ stands for
‘originality’ of an artist and the people in the ‘building’ are the traditional
artists who would challenge every new move.

If the poem is interpreted in the more general social context, then the
painter is a living soul whose ‘conscience’ is not dead, by the popular yet
baseless concepts of society. The huge ‘buildings’ are the popular views of the
society and the ‘sea’ and ideal which mind comprehends as ‘perfect’ and all
those ‘wishes’ that seem justified and worth achieving. However, society too in
its execution is orthodox and never allows its norms to be trespassed. This is a
price which an individual has to pay for being a member of social set up. Thus,
the ‘painter’ metaphorically stands for a genius in the society, a non-conformist
who would like to do things the way he likes. But the people in the ‘building’
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portray the ‘voice’ of ‘social conscience’ which will do everything to sustain its
authority. In short, ‘personal will’ has to be sacrificed to sustain the greater
pressure of the society; otherwise we shall be hurled down into the ‘sea’: a sea
of troubles.

‘The painter can also be viewed as an indirect attack on the authorities

and the so called ‘champions of humanity’ who will implement their rules as
absolute solution to every problem. The poem was written in 1956, which was
the worst period in terms of the freedom granted to the writers. The ‘painter’
by painting the ‘sea’ wants to use his basic right of the “freedom of
expression”. But the authorities would like to ‘listen’ the truth which they
want. The poet in a mild way criticizes the behavior of so called custodian of
morality, who cause serious crimes against humanity. In this regard, the usage
of the world ‘crucify’ is also symbolic__ relating to Christ whose truthful chant
was cut-short by so called authorities of the time.

In the end, we can say that ‘The painter’ is a highly symbolic, allegorical
and deeply philosophical poem by John Ashbery. The credit goes to him for
conveying such deep thoughts in extra-ordinary simple language, also providing
that a good poem does not only depend upon sublime and elevated diction. The
poem in hand is also undeniable evidence of John Ashbery being a modern
poet__ his poems depends on the complexity of thought and not the diction. His
idea of art, artist, traditionalism, modernism, authorities, masses and above all
the true end of art are really worth appreciation. The image of sea, its
metaphorical implication, the conversational tone of the poem, implication, the
changing moods of the painter, the contradictory views of the outer side also
give the poem a quality of argumentation. In short, the beauty of the poem is
both ample and powerful, alluding to Ashbery as not only of the most fertile
minds, but one of the very great writers in American literature.
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A GENERAL ESTIMATION OF ASHBERY AS POET

OR
CHARACTERISTICS OF ASHBERY’S POETRY
John Ashbery is one of the most influential poetic vices America and his
popularity is increasing with every coming day. One cannot, however, eliminate
the shadows of doubt and controversy from his status as a poet. His poetry has
been called by his friends:

“the illumination of life turned into language and language turned into life”
and brutally dismissed by his detractors as “garbage”, he has also bewildered
reviewers who think that in his poetry “Words often appear in unexpectedly
brilliant new combination”.
He is a great experimenter in the modern day art of versification. He with some
of the other younger poets of the era tried to prove that the tradition of
American poetry can still have vitality if freed from its conventional restraints.
It will not be wrong to say that no other American poet of modern day has
enjoyed such varied and abundant criticism as is enjoyed John Ashbery.
The chief feature of Ashbery as a poet may be his ‘complexity’. He is
more complex and intricate than he is often thought to be. He is a highly
conscious artist who is constantly lauding impulse, a penetrating thinker, a
countryman who conceals behind his poetry for the land a sophisticated attitude.
According to Bayley his blending of thought and emotion and symbolic
imagery which give a greater vitality to his poetry. What may add complexity
Ashbery himself said that:
“to record a kind of generalized transcript of what’s really going on in our
minds all day long”

To his themes is his conversational tone in almost every poem. Using familiar
tones and topics, employing technical symbols, he evokes contemplation of
simple truths. His poems are parable like. His complexity is enhanced by the
“metaphysical” tinge in the poetry. He follows some of the tradition of
Emerson, Frost and Emily Dickonson. It goes on to show that he tries to go
beyond the seen to unseen. A hasty reading of his poems will not allow us to see
anything more than commonly observed about events or fact and mystery which
surrounds it.
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Ashbery in his poem either isolates the individual or treats mankind in the
mass as nation or race. Poem after poem, shows the speaker running off or
living alone. Most of his poems deal with the modern themes such as alienation
and isolation of man from his fellow man. In his poems as ‘The painter and
‘Melodic Train’ he does dwell upon the theme of alienation and interprets it
vividly yet he does not approve of it. He does not adopt the rhetoric and the
explicit method of Whitman, in his poetry; he is content to portray the barriers
between man and man and to make a projection of the theme of isolation. His
approach towards such differences between beings is that of dislike, but to him
they are inevitable while a man is the part of his society. Ashbery insists on
recognizing these barriers and not to avoid the topic. This is beautiful shown in
‘Melodic Train’ where everyone is captured by his set of thoughts.

“Why couldn’t
We have been more considerate”.
In short, Ashbery’s view of society and man is consistent throughout. Each man
to him is a stranger and an isolated being and so is he remains for the most of
the time.

John Ashbery is also an expert in resorting to ‘symbolism’ in his poetry.

Symbolism implies an indirect suggestion of ideas. A poet may not convey his
thought or meaning through direct statements, he may employ symbols in order
to convey his meaning. A poem may have a surface meaning, but it may also
have a symbolic meaning, which is understood by the reader only. It is obvious
that a symbolic poem would be the richer and more profound by virtue of its use
of symbols. While any of the poems of Ashbery are simple and plain, there are
many symbols which yield their true meaning only when probed deeper. We
can take the example of ‘The Painter’ in this regard. The painter depicted in the
poem fails to follow his ‘will’ as the ‘People’ in the ‘building’ do not like it.
Thus, through the use of very simple symbols, Ashbery comments on the
aggressive attitude of the society and so called authorities who may consider
every individual action as a kind of rebel. The beauty of all this has been that
the simplest and commonest words have been employed in the poem. Yet it is
deeply meditative and has a profound significance. Thus, John Ashbery being a
poet of modern-day realities was well aware of the literary methods that may
suit to his poetic temperament.
Nature and the natural surroundings are certainly important ingredient of
Asbery’s poems. But we cannot certainly call him a “Nature Poet” in the
tradition. William Words Worth. His poems suggest that nature is fairly
comprehensive term the meaning of which changes from poem to poem. The
nature as presented in this poems is not precisely a moral phenomenon. It is not
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a “Guardian Angel” who “Consoles the applicated and makes happy

happier”. He is ultimately not very much concerned with developing a
philosophically consistent concept of concept of nature. Important though
nature is to him, he is not really concerned with it as an object of philosophical
speculation, as something to be conceptualized. What really interests him is
mans reaction inot his surroundings and other human beings. Such phenomena
do not require an elaborate philosophical apparatus for their apprehension. In
short, Nature is a part of plan of huge surroundings to which we must conforus.

John Ashbery is a modern poet in every sense of the word. The most
modern aspect of his poems apart from their themes is the delineation of
characters. His characters tells us the bare truth about themselves and the
process by which they arrive at that truth is always “terrifying” Ashbery does
not only depict the outward events and conditions of the modern day world but
the uncertainty and the and the painful sense of loss, characteristic of modern
age are always there in his poems. The contemporary nature of Ashbery’s poem
is a fact that must be readily recognized. Another modern aspect of poetry has
been the concern with the “individuals” and their problems in modern
capitalistic world. It is through the depiction of the individual psyche and his set
of problems that the poet takes us to some of the larger realities of life.
However, we should not quote any writer as being “modern” because he was
born in the present age and wrote in it. Modernity is the concept strictly related
to “Spirit” and Ashbery in that sense too. His concern with the world, greater
importance to the individual freedom, condemnation of so called “Protectors”
of humanity and above all the way he tries to study the flow of human though
make him a modern poet.

To conclude the whole discussion we may safely claim that Ashbery’s

career is one of great importance for the world in general and America in
particular. He restored to the poetry the readers that had been lost. As a teacher,
poet, critic and painter the reconstituted a self-controlled poetic character, which
has been attractive to the modern readers. He has written over twenty books of
poetry and they combine the elements of rhetoric, mundane musings, and the
identity of man and the place of artist in this world. His influence on
contemporary poetry without the fear of histrionics, to be profound. His poetry
is packed with all sorts of information and messages. Relating to the too much
derived aspects of his poetry, he once said: “We all interpret poetry according
to what we have experienced; therefore everybody’s interpretation is going
to differ from everybody else’s”. In short, it will not be wrong to say that
Ashbery is the echoing voice of the present day American society because of his
poetic appeals. To quote Henry Darger;
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“His poetry appeals not because it offers wisdom in a packed form,

but because the elusiveness and mysterious promise of his lines us
that we always have a future and condition of meaningfulness to
start outward”.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
OF
“MELODIC TRAINS”

“Melodic Trains” is an informative, symbolic, meditative poem, imparting a

deep philosophy of life, in a simplicity which is typical of John Ashbery. The
poem deals with an image of journey through the train, but the poet travels
through the deep recess of human mind and tries to analyse the complexity
prevailing there. The poem is further tinged with Meta physical strain, personal
feelings of the poet about some of the touching realities and curious blend of
reality and imagination makes it an unforgettable commentary on the life around
us. In short, the poem is deceptively simple at the apparent level and has a
hidden philosophy and the theme which may be beyond the mental appreciation
of the readers.

The start of this poem is dramatic and a bit suspenseful when we witness
the poet travelling through a train and is asked about the time by young girl.
However, her watch is dummy and naturally there is no conception of real time
on it. The poet realizes that the girl is wearing the watch just for fun, just as
sometimes adults use pipe or wears clothes for fun. He then begins to think
about the train and the way it travels across the valley. The train seems to him
as a pair of pencil and ruler moving against the map of the Alps. To Ashbery; he
and the little girl are the visitors who watch the train as a symbol of curiosity.

As the poet thoroughly meditates over the various phenomenon related

with his journey on train, he also reaches an irritating aspect of it. The time
table of the trains, thus departure and arrival, the affairs of the station and other
such events such events are not comprehensible to the poet. As he says;

“One begins to suspect there’s no

Rule or that it’s applied haphazardly”.

The vague aspect of the system of trains creates a type of confusion and chaos
on the stations as well. When a train arrives at some station, breaking the norms
of schedule, there is ‘Sadness of the faces of children and’ ‘Concern of the
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grown ups!’ people look for either their relatives or taxis so that they may be
evacuated of tense situation. The passengers leaning forward for various taxi-
cabs give an image of ‘Tower of Pisa figures’, to the poet. Ashbery being a
poet and sensitive person has also noticed the flustered temperaments of the
people, right before reaching the final destination. The passengers get so much
anxious that they lose all the sympathy and respect for others. This thought
makes stirring question: “Why couldn’t we have been more considerate?”
Further, the look on the faces of the passengers makes him more tense as they
seem dissatisfied and frustrated. However, the poet ardently hopes that anxiety
of these people would somehow diminish when they would reach their homes.

After such long thoughts about his fellow passengers, the attention of the
poet is soon captured by the “bluish vague landscape”. He gets immersed in
the beauty of nature and forgets all that was going on in his mind for a long
time. The poet tells us how listening to the others can force us to lose ourselves
and loss how listening to the others can force us to lose ourselves and loss of
contact with ourselves. It is only by neglecting the hustle and bustle that one can
enjoy the real beauty of the town around. However, as the meditation of the poet
and various views about the entire journey go on, perhaps, he too realizes the
end or the approaching end of his own railway travel. The idea of reaching his
destination creates the image in which the people gather, tossing hats and
preparing for welcome. However, all this seems quite too familiar to the poet,
an event which has happened a number of times prior to this.

A deep critical analysis of the poem suggests that a surface reading may
be misled a naive reader to take it as a poem depicting a journey by train. The
poem is ambiguous as well as symbolic in its implementation. The ambiguity is
created right at the start by the ‘title’ of the poem: “Melodic Trains”. Now this
suggests a smooth sailing of events and rhythmical journey. But the context of
the poem suggests that the title is ironical, as the journey is centered around
chaos and frustration. In fact, the journey is conducted here may symbolize the
journey of man in this world, a journey conducted amid tension; anxiety
weariness. The poem is exploratory in nature and the poet moves from known to
unknown, familiar to unfamiliar and above all from time to timelessness. The
opening dialogues of the poet with the little girl may seem an idle talk between
an adult and an adolescent but the underlying idea is the complicated idea
“Time” in this world. Hence, Ashbery too like P.B Shelly takes time as
“Unfathomable Sea” whose true nature cannot be judged perfectly. The
“Time” for you may appear on the clock and watches but we are not familiar
with the broader and historical vision of time. Hence, in our routine life, we
may be using the concept of ‘Time’ but the poet in here, gives it a more
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complex and mysterious air. However, this aspect gives the poem a greater
depth and touch of universality.
Another aspect of the poem in hand is the metaphor of “journey” which
might have been used for our “stay” in this world. As William Shakespeare in
his famous poem suggests the idea:

“All the world’s stage,

And all the men and
Women merely players:”

Similarly, John Ashbery projects the worlds in terms of a journey which is

conducted in nerve breaking circumstances. This journey of ours is a mixture of
paradoxes and contradictions and if at times the worlds seems to us: ‘a heaven’,
at other times it is too much for us with:

“Clouds of anxiety, of sad, regretful impatience”….

If we feel hopeful of meeting our near and dear ones at the journey but this also
includes the lawlessness of the railway system:

“One begins to suspect there’s no rule or that it’s applied haphazardly”.

In fact, metaphorically the above comment on running the train system is

Hardyain conception of the universe. As he says:

“Ill judged execution of the well judged plans of nature”.

Moreover, while in this world main is in a constant state of turmoil and through
penetration of the worries around, haunts his mind. There may be the moment
of “Dales and gulches” but perhaps the ultimate fate is frustration:

“Happiness is an occasional episode in general drama of pain”.

The poet also gets a bit gloomy at the idea that these demands of the tense
jouney have made us prisoners to our thoughts; we remain so much pre-
occupied with our own selves that we hardly find time to look around and share
the joys and grief of others: “We have no time to stand and stare”; That is
why the poet compares the motions of these exhausted passangers with
“Mehanical puppets”. To him they are ‘Towers of Pisa figures’
There are hardly any emotions and feelings for others. This is in here that the
poet introduces, perhaps, the most significant question of the poem:

“Why couldn’t
We have been more considerate?”
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Thus, the above question becomes a mild satire and strong protest by the poet
against the “modern-psyche” which has become too much absorbed and matter
to fact. At a moment when train stops and the platform is crowded with people,
there is a mood of hum-drum activities and the poet though feels the people to
be “my brother” yet the bond superficial. In such variously tense mood people
come, sit with each other but like huge glaciers remain far a part of each other.
They carry their dull mechanical moods in the public places and then move to
their houses with the same moods. If this is the crux of man’s life in this world
then it is really pathetic. Thus, man’s life continues in this world in the presence
of anxiety and hope for betterment.
To conclude our discussion on the “Melodic Train” we may say that it is
typical of John Ashbery’s poetic style. The poem reveals his dramatic well as
narrative talent as a poet. The philosophy of the given poem may not be crystal
clear but the message is very clear. The present man is shutting the doors of
happiness on himself by too much retrospection and concern with his own self.
This has given birth to ill-tempers, selfishness and profligacy in the modern
worlds, especially America. Thus, the philosophy conveyed is neither innocent
nor tormented but “ironic” in its texture. However, the present poem is rich not
only for the impressive theme and unique setting but simple dialogues,
abundance of images, changing moods of the poet, allusions to concentrate
objects, and penetrating quality of some of the questions asked________ all this
combines to create an enchanting piece of poetry by the magic pen of John
Ashbery. One may conclude with the words of John Bayley:

“Ashbery is a poet who stylizes into apparent existence the non-events

Of consciousness, sometimes contrasting them in a rather witty way
with the perpetual work of art”.

ASHBERY’S POETIC TECHNIQUES

OR
STYLE AND PATTERN OF ASHBERY’S POETRY
OR
OBSCURITY IN ASHBERY’S POETRY
John Ashbery, one of the most famous modern day American poets is regarded
as an illuminating light of 20th century American letters. Ashbery’s poetry as
critic have observed, has evolved under a variety of influences besides Modern
Art, hence evaluating his poetic style demands great effort and intellectual
perception. For modern day readers, Ashbery’s poetry is nothing less than
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enigma, a mystery, a riddle which needs an acute perception to unfold some of

the implicit traits, ideas and suggestive elements. In this regard;

“New York book review” essayist Stephen Koch characterized Ashbery’s

voice as;

“A hushed, simultaneously incomprehensible and intellectual whisper with

a weird pulsating rhythm that fluctuates like a wave between peaks of
sharp clarity and watery droughts of obscurity and languor”.

His style, his poetic complexity, his surprising obscurity, his habit of
experimentalism and above all his verbal abstraction__ combine to cause strong
criticism on his poetic style. Even his strongest supporters admit that his poetry
is often difficult to read, but Ashbery has become, as James Atlas noted in a
magazine;

“The most widely honored poet of his generation”.

We can endeavor to have analysis of different poetic devices and techniques

which adds a mysterious charm to Ashbery’s poetry. As suggested by Brinnon
and some other recent reviewers Ashbery’s verse has taken place under the
influence of the various art forms, not necessarily poetic. The “Abstract
Expressionist Movement” in modern painting is an especially important
prescense in his work. Helen Meneil declares that Modern Art was first and
most powerful influence on Ashbery. When he began to write sin 1950s, Most
of the American poetry was formal and under many restraints (a touch
classical). But European Avant Grade was vigorously taking over the other Art
forms especially painting Ashbery’s poetic style has got such subtility and
variety that at times it becomes an uphill task to categorize his brand of
versification. Though Ashbery is a 20th century poet modernist yet we find so
much diversity in respect of his techniques that at one end, he seems classic like
Elizabethan’s and at another, he seems much like romanticist in the tradition of
William Words worth and S.T Coleridge. Ashbery’s poetry, as critics have
observed, evolved under a variety of influences, becoming in the end expression
of a wise distinctively and unmistakably his own. Among the influences are the
romantic tradition in American poetry that progressed from Whitman to
Wallace Stevens.

“The so called New York school of poets”

Ashbery’s subject matter seems similar to that of his favourite poet Wallace
Stevens. However, there are some other echoing vices in his poems like Eliot in
‘The Wasteland’ and pound in ‘The Cantos’, he alludes to a style in order to
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invoke feelings associated with them. More frequently, we find the modern
colloquial vices of different types of people the mentioning the character either
engages himself with others or meditates in the style of a dramatic monologue.
The character employed is not necessarily the poet himself. This also gives a
dramatic and prosaic quality to his poems. The interest of the readers is further
enhanced by the fable like handling of many of his poems. The ideal example in
this regard may be ‘Melodic Trains’, the protagonist in this poem is an adult
who gets involved in a discussion with a child. However the way the train
journey progresses and the way the protagonist goes through various sense
perceptions make this poem fable like, allegorical and at times obscure. The
same poetic device device is also employed in his famous poem like ‘The
painter’. Here again the protagonist of poem may or may not be the poet
himself. Through the thought process ad various pressures on the mind of an
artist we are given a complete snapshot of various explicit ad implicit forces in
the society. To resort to a protagonist and to dissect his psyche, while exploring
the surroundings at the same is a technique very frequently adopted by Ashbery.

Ashbery seems much impressed by this experimentalism in painting that

once he wrote:

“No one now thinks it odd that Picasso painted faces with eyes and
Mouth in the wrong place, while the hold of realism in literature in such
that the same kind of image in a poem would still be considered shocking”.

The above quoted remarks by him may untie some of the complexity en
captured in his poetic technique and temperament true to the “Abstract-
Expressionist” art, Ashbery’s poems according to freed are a “Verbal
Canvas” upon which he freely applies the technique of expressionism.

To speak of some of the representative poems with regards to his poetic

style “Self-Portriat” in a ‘Convex mirror’, ‘The tennis court oath’, ‘The
Melodic Trains’ and ‘The Painter’ definitely gives us the slice of Ashbery’s
poetic technique and his conception of verification. The readers, at times are
struck by his unique ability to explore the verbal implications of painterly space.
‘The Painter’ virtually resonates or extends “THE PAINTER’S’ meaning. It
transforms impact felt by the painter into a verbal precision. Jonathan Holden
rightly believed:

“Ashbery is the first American poet to successfully

carryout the possibilities of analogy between poetry
and abstract expression painting”.
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This expressionist technique brought a unique as well as sublime success for

Ashbery. Two major features contributed further to make him chief figure in
modern experimental poetry. He is the first poet to identify the correct
correspondence between painting and writings; he is also the first true poet to
explore this analogy with a shill to produce first rate poetry. It is his genius not
only to be able to execute syntax with left, it has an intrinsic beauty and
authority almost wholly independent of any specific context.
In his verse Ashbery attempts to mirror the stream of perception of human
consciousness and he usually assumes a persona for this purpose. He chooses a
character, places him in a social as well as psychological context, of modern
scientific devices (Gadgets) the style’s contemporary Journalism, adversity,
newspapers, psychology and the like. Since these styles are relatively graceless,
we sense a certain irony when we encounter them in Ashbery’s poems. His
juxtapositions and metaphysical tinge with a simplicity of diction is something
which also equate him with Robert Frost. This all makes Ashbery one of the
most difficult poets to be labeled and put in any category.

To cut the matter short we can claim with a degree of certainty that
Asbery is a unique poet as far as his poetic techniques and style is concerned.
He has made a mark for himself in the modern American poetry, A mark which
is distinctive, a bit puzzling but at the same highly charming. His handling of
the poetic devices such as Allegory, Assonance, Colloquial, diction, elegy, his
images, the use of irony metaphors and unconventional devices speak for his
shill as a master craftsman. However, several quality of his verse is contradicted
by an intellectualism and obscurity which become hurdles for the readers.
Victor Lowes recognized the rich diversity of the poets work but asked;

“Does he touch the heart?

Does he know the passions’.

Similarly J.A Avaunt argued that;

‘Emotion has been intellectualized to the extent that it is almost non-

existent’.

To give an unbiased view we may say that Ashbery’s verse mingled by many
critics for being excessively obscure becomes less difficult to understand when
examined in relation to modern art. His poetry is approachable. Explicable and
even downright lucid when read with some of the aesthetic assumptions of
abstract expressionism. Lauding the poet’s contribution to American letters,
Jenkins characterized Ashbery’s work as;

“A poetry whose beauties are endless”.