a novice nun sits atop a tall city building. The townspeople and police beg and bribe the woman to come down. Prayers are offered up for her, yet she rejects everything from friendship to flowers and candy.  Instead of material possessions, she desires what was not worldly. Naked, she jumps from the top of the building and takes her life. Using a starksimile, the poet compares her nakedness to a large, mythological bird egg, floating to the angels and out of the minds of men.

Part II Summary-

But she, of course, was only an effigy
Of indifference, a miracle
Not meant for us…

In the second half of the poem, Ashbery describes the attitude and reasoning behind the nun’s suicide. He explains that most of what is beautiful on earth must be ignored so that people can become better human beings.  The moth is drawn to the flame and for some inexplicable reason commits suicide by flying into its death. In the same light, why people do the things that they do cannot always be explained.  

We are weighed down by our sins. How is it possible to tell why the nun did what she did when she wore the cloth of God--his vestment? Life goes on; even that night, there were rockets in the sky and festivities. People do things that have no explanation.

If we were able to, we might have watched her glide upwards, wearing only her clothing made of leaves.  She would have been only an imitation of herself or a miracle not intended for our eyes.  She was not ours just as the leaves of fall do not belong to the winter season.

Ashbery’s poetry requires the second and possibly the third reading to grasp his message.  Once, the reader has found it; then, the pleasure comes rushing forth.

In "Illustration" by John Ashbery, a novice nun is sitting on the corner of a building "high over the city," while the police try to convince her to come down. Many people gather below to join in the attempt, with one lady promising "to be her friend" and others offering her nylons, "little offerings of fruit and candy," and flowers. The nun does not come down, but "for that the scene should be a ceremony / Was all she wanted." That is, the nun is gratified to have created a spectacle in the street because she wants "monuments."

The nun speaks, saying she knows the people will offer her "every good thing / I do not want," and she asks them to remember "I died accepting them." With this, she removes her robe and jumps from the building.

The second part of the poem serves as a sort of moral or explanation of this story about the nun. "Much that is beautiful," the poet says, "must be discarded" so that we can achieve a "taller impression of ourselves," just as moths will enter a flame because they want to be the flame itself. The speaker seems to equate the nun to this "flame," saying that we might have "soared from earth, watching her glide," but in the end the nun was only an "effigy of indifference, a miracle / Not meant for us." The nun, in refusing the beautiful earthly things that were offered to her, becomes a "miracle," or a better person in the next life.