John Ashbery

John Lawrence Ashbery (1927-2017) was one of the most influential poets of his time. His poetry was simultaneously elegant, original, and obscure. Ashbery's skillful play with words, his creative use of diction with multiple meanings, and the arresting images in his poetry are often met with confusion and admiration. Despite writing pieces generally difficult to understand, he is one of the most recognized poets of the twentieth century. He won many awards for his poetry and was a well-respected art critic. Ashbery's collection of poetry, Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), garnered him worldwide recognition winning multiple awards for it in the same year.

Fig. 1 - John Ashbery spoke at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival.

John Ashbery: Biography

John Lawrence Ashbery was born in Rochester, New York on, July 28, 1927. His mother, Helen Lawrence, was a biology teacher, while his father, Chester Frederick Ashbery, worked as a farmer. Ashbery grew up on a fruit farm as a shy, sensitive, and gifted boy. His childhood was marked by a distant relationship with his father, who was prone to bouts of rage. Ashbery's father was often critical of his son's gentle nature and favored John Ashbery's younger sibling, Richard, for his athleticism and inclination toward more stereotypical manly activities such as sports and farming.

Ashbery's childhood was further complicated by the stresses of the Great Depression, small-town boredom, and being bullied by local children. His confusion and shame over his sexual identity resulted in Ashbery's very secluded life and childhood.

Tragedy hit Ashbery's life at twelve years old when his brother died from leukemia. It was an event that would mark his formative years and remain with him throughout his life. Much of his older poetry lingers with sentiments of sadness and loss. To find solace from the teasing his peers dealt him and from the loneliness, young Ashbery turned to books. He was a voracious reader and movie enthusiast and found refuge in a small group of friends.

Ashbery went off to a boarding school called Deerfield Academy. This elite educational facility was located in western Massachusetts. Although ever the outsider, even at Deerfield, Ashbery saw the opportunity to learn and was introduced to some of the earlier figures that would influence his life's work and writing. He read works of poets like Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), W. H. Auden (1907-1973), and Gertrude Stein (1874-1946). It was here that Ashbery began writing poetry. Although he initially aspired to become a painter and even took weekly classes for a few years, Ashbery managed to also publish a few poems and a short fiction piece in the school newspaper.

Fig. 2 - Ashbery attended Harvard College and graduated in 1949.

Ashbery then attended Harvard College, where he met two friends who would alter his life's course, Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) and Kenneth Koch (1925-2002). While at Harvard, Ashbery was a member of the college's literary magazine and even wrote his senior thesis paper on W. H. Auden's poetry. Soon after graduating from Harvard in 1949, Ashbery completed a graduate degree from Columbia University in 1951. Ashbery would often gather in Manhattan with Koch and O'Hara, creating the center of what is now known as the New York School of Poets.

Ashbery later moved to Paris, where he spent time as an editor for Art and Literature Magazine, was a critic for Art International, and would also translate French murder mystery manuscripts for extra money. In 1970, when Ashbery was 42, he met his longtime partner and husband, David Kermani. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, Ashbery taught at Brooklyn College and Bard College. Although he retired from Bard College in 2008, he continued to work with both graduates and undergraduates at various institutions.

Throughout his career, Ashbery developed a particular writing style that is uniquely his and instantly identifiable. His works mixed the classical and contemporary, tradition and pop culture, and utilized abstractions to give meaning. He resonated so well with current generations that he was selected as the first Poet Laureate for MtvU, a station that would broadcast exclusively to college campuses. In 2008, 18 of Ashbery's poems were used in promotional material and featured on mtvu.com.¹ Ashbery also gained the respect of his peers and often garnered praise from the likes of other poets. Although he died in 2017, he impacted the literary world indelibly. American poet Susan Howe (1937- Present) stated of Ashbery's death, "John Ashbery was the last great American Modernist poet living ... I feel lost without him." ²

Themes in John Ashbery's Poetry

Although many themes are found in the vast collection of John Ashbery's published poems and critical art reviews, he often favored certain topics. Some themes Ashbery explored are death and dichotomies.

Death

Death is an important and recurring topic in many of Ashbery's works. Perhaps because it is a natural inclination for humankind to want to understand death, and perhaps because of his past experience in losing his brother this theme is often present. His exploration of the nature of death in his poetry arrives at no concrete conclusion but challenges the reader. "Flowering Death" (1979) exemplifies his innovative style and theme of death.

Connection and Disconnection

In one of Ashbery's more famous and earlier poems, "Some Trees" (1956), his exploration of dichotomies is evident, as is his play with pronouns. Although the poem is titled "Some Trees," the actual verse gives little hint that is the topic the speaker addresses. The trees in the poem can be the actual trees the title indicates, representative of people, or even symbolic of life's experiences. Because the language is at once ambiguous and exact, Ashbery leaves the reader perplexed and forced to draw their own meaning from the printed words.

John Ashbery Poems

John Ashbery penned more than 20 books of poetry. His first, Some Trees (1956), won the Yale Younger Poets Prize, as judged by W. H. Auden, a poet whose work was influential to Ashbery. Here are some of his other notable works.

"Wakefulness" (1998)

The poem begins as a dream ends. It is exploring that brief moment of time when one is still slightly asleep yet awake. Ashbery would often keep pen and paper by his bed to capture the fleeting thoughts that arose during this time. It captures the essence of the sleeping mind, where dreams and reality combine to make one.

"The New Spirit" (1972)

In "The New Spirit," the speaker explores past feelings and experiences and feels anticipation for the future. The speaker sees potential in the unknown and a peace in not having the answers.

John Ashbery's Awards and Recognitions

Throughout his writing career, John Ashbery won nearly every writing award available. Notably, in 1976, he won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his poetry collection, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. John Ashbery was also awarded the following recognitions:

• the Bollingen Prize in Poetry in 1984 for A Wave (1984)
• the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 1992
• the International Griffin Poetry Prize for Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems (2007)
• The Robert Frost Medal in 1995
• The Robert Creeley Award in 2008

John Ashbery is pictured below in 2012, accepting the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. The same year, Ashbery was inducted into the New York Writers' Hall of Fame and earned the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 2017, the year he died, Ashbery was awarded the Raymond Roussel Society Medal.

Fig. 3 - John Ashbery received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2012.