Criticism > Poetry > Ashbery, John - Paul Zweig (review date 1972)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

Paul Zweig (review date 1972)

SOURCE: A review of Three Poems, in The New York Times Book Review, April 9, 1972, pp. 4, 18, 20.

[In the following essay, Zweig commends Ashbery's use of hermetic language.]

I read each new book by John Ashbery with the same puzzlement and fascination. Ashbery's finely tuned style never lapses into the commonplace. Every poem creates a mood of density and discretion, which is almost magical. And yet one never knows quite what the poems are about. His fine elaboration of images and arguments forms a concealing net, a sort of camouflage that works not so much by covering over as by fascinating, so that one forgets to pursue one's hunger for logic amid the glories of pure language. Not since Hart Crane has an American poet made difficulty so thoroughly into a means of expression.

Here are the opening lines of "The Skaters," from Ashbery's collection Rivers and Mountains:

...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Paul Zweig (review date 1972)
   2. Fred Moramarco (essay date 1976)
   3. David Kalstone (essay date 1976)
   4. Grace Schulman (essay date 1977)
   5. Dana Yeaton (review date 1981)
   6. David Fite (essay date 1981)
   7. Bonnie Costello (essay date 1982)
   8. Thomas A. Fink (essay date 1984)
   9. John Ashbery with Paul Munn (interview date 1990)
   10. Steven Meyer (review date 1995)
   11. Jody Norton (essay date 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. How to Analyze a Poem
2. Poetry