"The Mooring of Starting Out is filled with illustrations glimpsed through luminous, funny, formidably intelligent and often heartbreaking poems. Its pages should be cut, and re-read."
(Andrew Zawacki, Times Literary Supplement, 12th June 1998)

"Ashbery is that rare bird, a controversially great poet."
(David Herd, The Guardian, 24th July 1997)

"John Ashbery will be 70 next Monday. He will be feted in America as his country's greatest living poet, and will no doubt receive new accolades to add to his already impressive haul of prizes and fellowships. This is as it should be: just reward for the unrivalled grace and intelligence with which he has continued to handle the conflicting demands of the traditions in which he works and the contemporary audience for whom he writes."
(David Herd, The Guardian, 24th July 1997)

"Five decades on from his debut volume, Ashbery has become that impossible hybrid, an outlaw and a classic."
(David Herd, The Guardian, 24th July 1997)

"In a culture which expects the poet to know his or her place as a minor artist, Ashbery, writing at a Byronic pace, continues to insist on being heard. Ashbery has remained the poet of our moment because more than any contemporary he has stayed the poet of the here and now."
(David Herd, The Guardian, 24th July 1997)