Although John Ashbery’s works are somewhat puzzling to me, I find him to be an extraordinary poet. I never believed that in order to get something out of the poetry I read I need to recognize exactly what it is the poet wrote about. Perhaps some poets don’t want this certainty to be achieved in order to allow the reader to form his or her own feelings and emotions when reading a certain poem.
“Some Trees” by Ashbery has a melodious nature. What he is literally trying to portray in this poem has not yet occurred to me but despite that, I am able to appreciate his use of language and his formulations of opposites within the poem. One specific line which stood out to me states, “A silence already filled with noises” (15). This line reflects on the entire poem and paints a picture in my mind filled with trees swaying back and forth in the wind which in turn creates the silence filled with noises which Ashbery describes. The swaying of the trees forms this melody and the poem catches onto a momentum which I hear in my voice as I read the poem aloud. Suddenly the poem becomes alive and the vivid descriptions of “A canvas on which emerges/ A chorus of smiles” triumphs over the end of the third stanza and transforms into the beginning of the forth stanza (16-17). The lyrical like language, which depicts Ashbery’s rich vocabulary and understanding of how words compliment each other, turns the possible meaning of the poem upside down and around, just like some trees behave in the wind. This behavior is wild in nature which compares to the way I view Ashbery’s writing.
2 comments:
Yes, Ashbery can be puzzling! I'd like to hear more attention to details/lines/phrases of the poem here...
It helps to think about what Ashbery had to say about his intention was in writing a poem. He stated that he didn't write so much about the subject of his poem, in this case trees, but the experience of encountering the trees. So, imagine what you think and feel if you were standing in front of them, and how can they represent a metaphor for your life. So the poem is an ontological (the study of the nature of being, that is to say what it is like for you to exist as you do) exploration of your experience of the metaphor of being. It is complex, I know. But there is a long standing tradition of poetry on humanity in the natural world. Consider Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" or Robert Frost's "The Sound of Trees",or Mary Oliver's "The Black Walnut Tree", all of which use trees as imagery and metaphor for life. I encourage you to read these poems and go back "To Some Trees". As it turns out, you, the readers of the poem, are the subject of "Some Trees".
I hope this helps. It really is a great poem. Ashbery is one of America's greatest poets.
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