Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Disagreeable Glimpses" by John Ashbery is a vividly surreal and complex poem that explores themes of identity, memory, and the disorienting nature of experience. Ashbery is renowned for his abstract narratives and rich, layered imagery, which are evident in this poem’s dream-like, almost hallucinatory quality.

The poem begins with the speaker recounting a fall from a great height and subsequent assembly, suggesting a reconstruction of self or identity. The setting in a dollhouse on a fainting couch upholstered with poppies introduces a sense of artificiality and perhaps the allure of escapism or the opiate nature of certain experiences.

The interaction with the Countess of C and the distribution of cakes according to a fixed plan imply social structures and the roles individuals play within them. The rejection of the cake likened to a small cat in the snow reflects a refusal or inability to conform to these prescribed roles or expectations.

The abrupt ending of a string quartet and a shift to a village movie palace evoke a sense of discontinuity and fragmented narrative, common in Ashbery’s work, where scenes and images shift rapidly without obvious connection.

The mention of lovers by the brook's side and the broom sweeping up its own dust symbolize cycles of nature and life, and perhaps the futility of trying to impose order on inherently chaotic and organic processes.

The solar disk clogged with bristles of impending resolution suggests a moment of impending clarity or understanding that is obscured or difficult to grasp.

The poem's narrative meanders through various scenes and reflections, from the cottage by the lake with embroidered wave hems to the helium balloon rising above the city. This journey reflects the mind's wanderings through memories, fantasies, and different states of consciousness.

The reference to musicianly echoes in the woods and the instruction to return dishes to the main room after using point to mundane activities and experiences that ground the surreal narrative in the ordinary.

The poem concludes with an assertion of collective identity as lamplighters of a criminal past, suggesting a shared history or collective guilt. The final image of the last trail unspooling beyond Ohio leaves the reader with a sense of ongoing journey and unresolved narrative.

In "Disagreeable Glimpses," Ashbery masterfully weaves together disparate images and scenes to create a tapestry of human experience that is both disorienting and deeply engaging. The poem invites readers to consider the complexities of perception, the fluidity of identity, and the elusive nature of understanding in a world that is both strange and familiar.

POEM TEXT: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Chinese_Whispers/jil5BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22After+my+fall+from+the+sixteenth+floor+my+bones+were+lovingly+assembled%22+ashbery&pg=PT21&printsec=frontcover

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