Ashbery, John (Vol. 4) | Ashbery, John 1927–
Ashbery, John 1927–
Ashbery is an American experimental poet whose work is characterized by obscure syntax and elusive imagery. The Double Dream of Spring is considered his finest work. Ashbery has also written plays and, with James Schuyler, a novel, A Nest of Ninnies. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)
Ashbery is avant-garde, obscure, abstract, and one of our two or three best. Each of his first three books was a striking new departure. At last [in The Double Dream of Spring] we have something that looks like a consolidation—but not a retreat, certainly not a retreat. The poetry is philosophical without being pretentious: rather, a fantastic control of tone balances these poems on a witty edge between comedy and tears. "Some Words," for example, written in consciously terrible couplets, stops being funny after a page or so; the reader becomes uneasy, as he realizes that on another level...
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