Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"They Don't Just Go Away, Either" by John Ashbery presents a narrative that weaves together elements of memory, fantasy, and the passage of time within a surreal and dreamlike landscape. Ashbery's poem is a reflection on childhood, family dynamics, and the mysteriousness of the everyday, encapsulated in a setting that blends the mundane with the extraordinary.

The poem opens with a setting "In Scandinavia," where the persistence of snow creates a "time vault" environment, suggesting a space removed from the usual flow of time, where memories and experiences are preserved in a pristine, albeit cold, state. This setting serves as a backdrop for the exploration of family life, where "lucky cousins" live and children engage in timeless games under the watchful eye of their parents.

The father figure, working at his table in a room off the main parlor, is a presence shrouded in mystery, embodying the unknowable aspects of adulthood as seen through the eyes of a child. The abrupt withdrawal of the lamp by "Mamma" plunges the family into darkness, a metaphor for the unknowable and perhaps the unconscious, where the children are left to navigate the uncertain terrain of their imaginations.

The ascent to the "attic funnel" for bedtime introduces a shift from the communal space of family life to the solitary realm of dreams and the subconscious. Here, the poem delves into the potential of dreams to be "prophetic," suggesting a deeper layer of reality or truth that exists beyond the surface of everyday life.

The vivid imagery of stumbling down an alley, "screaming, forehead bathed in blood or ossified like an old tree root," evokes a sense of crisis or transformation, where the familiar becomes uncanny and the self is confronted with its own vulnerability and mortality.

Ashbery's mention of winters passed without gaining wisdom, but instead feeling like "a face freshly shaved by the barber," captures the paradox of aging and the accumulation of experiences that may not necessarily lead to greater understanding or enlightenment.

The poem closes with a poignant moment of departure, where the speaker is compelled to move forward despite the blinding lamp and unsettling whispers, driven by a sense of duty or destiny towards "the cousins and the rabbit who await us in the dooryard." This ending encapsulates the tension between the desire to remain in the safety of the known and the inexorable pull towards the unknown, towards growth and change.

"They Don't Just Go Away, Either" is a richly layered poem that invites readers to contemplate the complexities of memory, the mysteries of family life, and the inevitability of change. Ashbery's distinctive blend of clarity and obscurity, reality and fantasy, provides a deeply engaging and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition.

POEM TEXT: https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1999-04-05/flipbook/062/

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