Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Bloodfits" by John Ashbery presents an eclectic mix of images and scenarios, capturing the unpredictable and often absurd nature of human experience. The poem opens with the image of second-hand music drifting down the stairs and into the street, immediately setting a scene that is both ordinary and slightly off-kilter. This juxtaposition of the mundane and the unexpected is a recurring theme in Ashbery's work, challenging readers to find meaning in the seemingly disconnected elements of everyday life.

The mention of dentists making all the money in a camera obscura adds a layer of surrealism to the poem. The camera obscura, a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an external image is projected onto the opposite wall, serves as a metaphor for perception and the way we interpret the world around us. This could suggest that our understanding of reality is as distorted and inverted as the image in a camera obscura.

The children's description of the seaside as cheap and the way the salt air affects the skin grounds the poem in a more familiar setting, yet the mention of violently dented silhouettes and the fleeting nature of these impressions adds an element of transience and impermanence to the scene.

The instructions to put on glasses and read a label, and the reference to holding a bat, introduce a sense of action or decision-making, perhaps implying the need for clarity and focus in navigating life's complexities. The shirt the color of Sam Rayburn Lake, described in vivid detail, brings in sensory experiences and a connection to nature, though tinged with a sense of decay and the passage of time.

The poem concludes with the image of picnicking prisoners enjoying the musk drifting off the lake, evoking a sense of longing and nostalgia. This final scene, with its reference to bloody nostalgia and a nonexistent hypotenuse, underscores the theme of longing for something unattainable or non-existent, a common motif in Ashbery's poetry.

Overall, "Bloodfits" is a rich tapestry of images and ideas, weaving together disparate threads to create a narrative that is both enigmatic and evocative. Ashbery invites readers to embrace the complexities and contradictions of life, finding beauty and meaning in the unexpected and the inexplicable.

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