Carcanet Press - Where Shall I Wander

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Excerpt
Author
Contents
Reviews

It's really quite a thrill
When the moon rises above the hill
And you've gotten over someone
Salty and mercurial, the only person you ever loved.
from 'Retro'

John Ashbery's new collection of fifty-one poems ends with the substantial piece that gives the book its title. Composed in stanzaic prose, it is a fine specimen of his distinctive courtship mode, wooing the language with language, teasing it and teasing out of it a Protean lover that loves Protean him back: a you, an I, in a wild variety of registers and postures.

Throughout Where Shall I Wander the effable and ineffable are in dialogue; time ('then' and 'now') and the stable moments of the poem are within earshot of one another, but cannot ever quite touch hands. There are ghosts and presences, some unexpected like Ali Baba, Arabia Deserta (down to the turning spit and braised goat) and Mrs Hanratty's apron; others like H?rlin are more insistently entertained, in a poetry that fractures and reinvents syntax, cadence and our sense of beauty, this tribute informed by the terror of H?rlin's later world in which it is impossible not to share.

'A fine collection of poems rooted in 21st-century America.' - Robert McCrum, The Observer

Table of Contents

Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse 1

O Fortuna 2

Affordable Variety 3

Days of Reckoning 4

Wastrel 6

Coma Berenices 7

The New Higher 12

In Those Days 13

A Visit to the House of Fools 14

Dryness of Mouth 15

Involuntary Description 16

H�lderlin Marginalia 17

Told Her to Get On with It 23

The Weather, for Example 24

And Counting 26

You Spoke as a Child 27

Interesting People of Newfoundland 28

Broken Tulips 30

Retro 31

Capital O 33

Annuals and Perennials 35

Wolf Ridge 36

When I Saw the Invidious Flare 37

Heavy Home 39

The Situation Upstairs 41

�Well-�Lit Places 43

Meaningful Love 44

More Feedback 46

Lost Footage 47

The Red Easel 49

Novelty Love Trot 50

The Template 52

From China to Peru 53

Idea of the Forest 55

The Injured Party 56

A Darning Egg 57

Wild City 58

The Bled Weasel 60

A Below Par Star 61

The Snow Stained Petals Aren't Pretty Any More 62

Tension in the Rocks 64

Counterpane 65

Two Million Violators 67

Sonnet: More of Same 68

The Love Interest 69

Composition 70

John Ashbery is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, most recently Quick Question (January 2013). He is the recipient of many honours, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and a MacArthur ‘genius’ award. Born in Rochester, New York, he was educated at Harvard and Columbia. In ... read more

Praise for John Ashbery 'Praised as a magical genius, cursed as an obscure joker, John Ashbery writes poetry like no one else.' The Independent 'Great poetry, as T.S. Eliot said, can communicate before it is understood: Ashbery communicates in a way that both pays homage to language and transcends it at the same time.' The Guardian 'John Ashbery's Collected Poems 1956-1987, edited by Mark Ford (Carcanet), was a book I found inexhaustible. Possibly the greatest living English-speaking poet and one of the most prolific, Ashbery takes language to its limits, so that words serve as pointers to shifting experiences that elude description. Containing his masterpiece 'Self-Portrait In A Convex Mirror', one of the most penetrating 20th-century meditations on what it means to be human, this collection succeeded in stirring my thoughts as well as delighting me.' John Gray The Guardian Books Of The Year 2010 'The language of [John Ashbery's] books is informed by his roving enthusiasms for particular composers. His tastes are both eclectic and out-of-the-way.'- Michael Glover, 'A blue rinse for the language,' The Independent, 13 November, 1999 'The careering, centrifugal side of Girls on the Run is one of its most effective tools in creating its special ainbience of good-humoured menace ... Ashbery has made the slush of signification, the realm where words slip, slide, perish and decay, uniquely his own.' - David Wheatley, Times Literary Supplement, 30 June, 2000 'In his seventies John Ashbery offers a sprightly and energetic alternative. Instead of being sluggish he demands that the self must be even more alert, more vigilant, more attentive to the world around it, not indifferent to and weary of it. Alert, vigilant, attentive ... Wakefulness, the brilliantly evocative title of Ashbery's collection.' - Stephen Matterson, 'The Capacious Art of Poetry,' Poetry Ireland Review 62, 114 'Harold Bloom regards [John Ashbery] as something akin to a genius...' - Michael Glover, 'The poet as frustrated composer,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Independent, 14 August, 1998 '...Ashbery is still exuberantly dedicated to the truthful rendering of experience as a flow of sensations that defy interpretation. Consciousness is not so much a stream as a series of jump-cuts from one haunting or zany impression to the next. His best poems have a weirdly, intriguingly satisfying quality.' - Alan Brownjohn, 'Creating a sensation,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Sunday Times, 10 January, 1999

'Stemming in part from Mallarme and in part from Whitman, Ashbery's work creates a tension in which the fine networks of linguistic reverie are balanced by the strong sense of American tradition.'- Peter Ackroyd, 'Books of the Year,' The Times Literary Supplement, 4 December, 1992 '...an Ashbery [poem] does not stand on its own but floats off into the reader's limitless consciousness like a balloon. Balloons can be very beautiful, inspire longing and also make you smile.'- Grey Gowrie, 'Where the commonplace is wonderful,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Daily Telegraph, 5 October, 1996 'John Ashbery's distinctiveness as a poet paradoxically resides in his ability to evade all single identities; like Whitman, he feels most fully himself when he contains multitudes ... [Ashbery] deploys a staggering variety of dictions, ranging from fragments of novelettish narratives to lyrical dream-visions, from the cliché of public speech to scraps of surrealist collage...'- Mark Ford, 'Free-wheeling towards the abyss,' Times Literary Supplement, 27 December, 1991 'Notoriously hard to characterise, Ashbery's poetry has been likened to many things - a spiritual experience or an animated cartoon ... No poet's lines are more accommodating to other voices and idioms ... Like restless guests, his subjects arrive and mingle, don unlikely disguises and abruptly announce they are "off on some expedition"...Such poise lends authority to his "positive melancholy," makes even his excesses ... masterly, and ensures that The Ashbery remains the destination of choice, the place "where everything gets unravelled just right."'- Julian Loose, Book and Poetry Review section, The Guardian, 3 November, 1992 'The Mooring of Starting Out is filled with illustrations glimpsed through luminous, funny, formidably intelligent and often heartbreaking poems.'- Andrew Zawacki, 'A wave of music,' Times Literary Supplement, 12 June, 1998 'John Ashbery is probably the most highly regarded living poet in America ... The "story" element in Ashbery comes over in fragmented and non-consequential ways, but the fragments have a strong power of visual evocation, and a startling precision of outline ... His focus is on a bravura artifice, a depersonalised surface crackling with "possibility," a brilliant randomness in which analogy with Action Painting asserts itself with special force...'- Claude Rawson, 'A poet in the postmodern playground,' Times Literary Supplement, 4 July, 1986

David Herd, the Guardian , Saturday 12th November 2005
John Ashbery's prose is an education and his latest collection of poetry, Where Shall I Wander , is a treat says David Herd
Attention, shoppers
Here are two books by John Ashbery. read more

James Longenbach, The Boston Review , Summer 2005:
Poetry Is Poetry
"Frank O'Hara's poetry has no program and therefore cannot be joined," said John Ashbery after the death of his close friend in 1966. read more

John Freeman, The Glasgow Herald , 2nd April 2005 King across the water
Some boys dream of becoming a train driver. read more

The Economist , 26th March 2005
King of the Kaleidoscope
There was a time when John Ashbery's obtuse writing style was seen as too strange to be poetry at all. read more

Helen Vendler, New Republic , 25th February 2005:
John Ashbery, in a youthful review of Marianne Moore, cited what he called the "almost satisfactory definition" of poetry given by the nineteenth-century French poet Banville: "[Poetry is] that magic which consists in awakening sensations with the help of a combination of sounds ... read more

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Where Shall I Wander John Ashbery RRP: GBP£ 7.95 Discount: 10% You Save: GBP£ 0.79 Price: GBP£ 7.16 Available Paperback ISBN: 978 1 857547 94 8 Categories: 20th Century, 21st Century, American Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Published: April 2005 216 x 135 mm 80 pages Publisher: Carcanet Press Description Excerpt Author Contents Reviews It's really quite a thrill When the moon rises above the hill And you've gotten over someone Salty and mercurial, the only person you ever loved. from 'Retro' John Ashbery's new collection of fifty-one poems ends with the substantial piece that gives the book its title. Composed in stanzaic prose, it is a fine specimen of his distinctive courtship mode, wooing the language with language, teasing it and teasing out of it a Protean lover that loves Protean him back: a you, an I, in a wild variety of registers and postures. Throughout Where Shall I Wander the effable and ineffable are in dialogue; time ('then' and 'now') and the stable moments of the poem are within earshot of one another, but cannot ever quite touch hands. There are ghosts and presences, some unexpected like Ali Baba, Arabia Deserta (down to the turning spit and braised goat) and Mrs Hanratty's apron; others like H?rlin are more insistently entertained, in a poetry that fractures and reinvents syntax, cadence and our sense of beauty, this tribute informed by the terror of H?rlin's later world in which it is impossible not to share. 'A fine collection of poems rooted in 21st-century America.' - Robert McCrum, The Observer Table of Contents Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse 1 O Fortuna 2 Affordable Variety 3 Days of Reckoning 4 Wastrel 6 Coma Berenices 7 The New Higher 12 In Those Days 13 A Visit to the House of Fools 14 Dryness of Mouth 15 Involuntary Description 16 H�lderlin Marginalia 17 Told Her to Get On with It 23 The Weather, for Example 24 And Counting 26 You Spoke as a Child 27 Interesting People of Newfoundland 28 Broken Tulips 30 Retro 31 Capital O 33 Annuals and Perennials 35 Wolf Ridge 36 When I Saw the Invidious Flare 37 Heavy Home 39 The Situation Upstairs 41 �Well-�Lit Places 43 Meaningful Love 44 More Feedback 46 Lost Footage 47 The Red Easel 49 Novelty Love Trot 50 The Template 52 From China to Peru 53 Idea of the Forest 55 The Injured Party 56 A Darning Egg 57 Wild City 58 The Bled Weasel 60 A Below Par Star 61 The Snow Stained Petals Aren't Pretty Any More 62 Tension in the Rocks 64 Counterpane 65 Two Million Violators 67 Sonnet: More of Same 68 The Love Interest 69 Composition 70 John Ashbery is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, most recently Quick Question (January 2013). He is the recipient of many honours, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and a MacArthur ‘genius’ award. Born in Rochester, New York, he was educated at Harvard and Columbia. In ... read more Praise for John Ashbery 'Praised as a magical genius, cursed as an obscure joker, John Ashbery writes poetry like no one else.' The Independent 'Great poetry, as T.S. Eliot said, can communicate before it is understood: Ashbery communicates in a way that both pays homage to language and transcends it at the same time.' The Guardian 'John Ashbery's Collected Poems 1956-1987, edited by Mark Ford (Carcanet), was a book I found inexhaustible. Possibly the greatest living English-speaking poet and one of the most prolific, Ashbery takes language to its limits, so that words serve as pointers to shifting experiences that elude description. Containing his masterpiece 'Self-Portrait In A Convex Mirror', one of the most penetrating 20th-century meditations on what it means to be human, this collection succeeded in stirring my thoughts as well as delighting me.' John Gray The Guardian Books Of The Year 2010 'The language of [John Ashbery's] books is informed by his roving enthusiasms for particular composers. His tastes are both eclectic and out-of-the-way.'- *Michael Glover, 'A blue rinse for the language,' The Independent, 13 November, 1999* 'The careering, centrifugal side of Girls on the Run is one of its most effective tools in creating its special ainbience of good-humoured menace ... Ashbery has made the slush of signification, the realm where words slip, slide, perish and decay, uniquely his own.' - *David Wheatley, Times Literary Supplement, 30 June, 2000* 'In his seventies John Ashbery offers a sprightly and energetic alternative. Instead of being sluggish he demands that the self must be even more alert, more vigilant, more attentive to the world around it, not indifferent to and weary of it. Alert, vigilant, attentive ... Wakefulness, the brilliantly evocative title of Ashbery's collection.' - *Stephen Matterson, 'The Capacious Art of Poetry,' Poetry Ireland Review* 62, 114** 'Harold Bloom regards [John Ashbery] as something akin to a genius...' - *Michael Glover, 'The poet as frustrated composer,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Independent, 14 August, 1998* '...Ashbery is still exuberantly dedicated to the truthful rendering of experience as a flow of sensations that defy interpretation. Consciousness is not so much a stream as a series of jump-cuts from one haunting or zany impression to the next. His best poems have a weirdly, intriguingly satisfying quality.' - *Alan Brownjohn, 'Creating a sensation,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Sunday Times, 10 January, 1999* 'Stemming in part from Mallarme and in part from Whitman, Ashbery's work creates a tension in which the fine networks of linguistic reverie are balanced by the strong sense of American tradition.'- *Peter Ackroyd, 'Books of the Year,' The Times Literary Supplement, 4 December, 1992* '...an Ashbery [poem] does not stand on its own but floats off into the reader's limitless consciousness like a balloon. Balloons can be very beautiful, inspire longing and also make you smile.'*- Grey Gowrie, 'Where the commonplace is wonderful,' Book and Poetry Review section, The Daily Telegraph, 5 October, 1996* 'John Ashbery's distinctiveness as a poet paradoxically resides in his ability to evade all single identities; like Whitman, he feels most fully himself when he contains multitudes ... [Ashbery] deploys a staggering variety of dictions, ranging from fragments of novelettish narratives to lyrical dream-visions, from the cliché of public speech to scraps of surrealist collage...'*- Mark Ford, 'Free-wheeling towards the abyss,' Times Literary Supplement, 27 December, 1991* 'Notoriously hard to characterise, Ashbery's poetry has been likened to many things - a spiritual experience or an animated cartoon ... No poet's lines are more accommodating to other voices and idioms ... Like restless guests, his subjects arrive and mingle, don unlikely disguises and abruptly announce they are "off on some expedition"...Such poise lends authority to his "positive melancholy," makes even his excesses ... masterly, and ensures that The Ashbery remains the destination of choice, the place "where everything gets unravelled just right."'*- Julian Loose, Book and Poetry Review section, The Guardian, 3 November, 1992* 'The Mooring of Starting Out is filled with illustrations glimpsed through luminous, funny, formidably intelligent and often heartbreaking poems.'*- Andrew Zawacki, 'A wave of music,' Times Literary Supplement, 12 June, 1998* 'John Ashbery is probably the most highly regarded living poet in America ... The "story" element in Ashbery comes over in fragmented and non-consequential ways, but the fragments have a strong power of visual evocation, and a startling precision of outline ... His focus is on a bravura artifice, a depersonalised surface crackling with "possibility," a brilliant randomness in which analogy with Action Painting asserts itself with special force...'*- Claude Rawson, 'A poet in the postmodern playground,' Times Literary Supplement, 4 July, 1986* David Herd, the Guardian , Saturday 12th November 2005 John Ashbery's prose is an education and his latest collection of poetry, Where Shall I Wander , is a treat says David Herd Attention, shoppers Here are two books by John Ashbery. read more James Longenbach, The Boston Review , Summer 2005: Poetry Is Poetry "Frank O'Hara's poetry has no program and therefore cannot be joined," said John Ashbery after the death of his close friend in 1966. read more John Freeman, The Glasgow Herald , 2nd April 2005 King across the water Some boys dream of becoming a train driver. read more The Economist , 26th March 2005 King of the Kaleidoscope There was a time when John Ashbery's obtuse writing style was seen as too strange to be poetry at all. read more Helen Vendler, New Republic , 25th February 2005: John Ashbery, in a youthful review of Marianne Moore, cited what he called the "almost satisfactory definition" of poetry given by the nineteenth-century French poet Banville: "[Poetry is] that magic which consists in awakening sensations with the help of a combination of sounds ... read more	Share this... 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