Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

John Ashbery's "By an Earthquake" is a sprawling textual landscape, brimming with disparate fragments that at first glance appear to resist coherency. It seems to read like a laundry list of plots, a collection of scenes, some possibly drawn from melodramas, some from dreams, and yet others from nightmares. Unlike traditional poetry, it doesn't lean on established formats or lyrical aestheticism; instead, it leans into disarray. But Ashbery's disarray is not without intent or intellectual rigor.

This work feels like an exercise in capturing the intricacies of consciousness, the perpetual storytelling that forms the texture of human life. By presenting a multitude of narratives-each a micro-story that captures a world of its own-the poem both challenges and invigorates the reader's sense of logic and expectation. With sentences like "A dies of psychic shock" or "Silver coins from the Mojave Desert turn up in the possession of a sinister jeweler," the poem serves as a catalogue of human endeavors and follies, peculiarities and tragedies.

The poem's unusual form could be seen as a response to the complexities of modern existence. It might be a reflection on the myriad influences-literary, historical, or otherwise-that shape our lives in ways both conspicuous and invisible. It echoes the style of a postmodern narrative where the linearity of storytelling is replaced by fragmented, non-linear modes that better encapsulate the fluidity and randomness of experience.

Even though the text is marked by its disjointedness, a few recurring motifs manage to surface, albeit subtly. The recurring character "A," in its various incarnations (A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5, A-8), stands out as a template of human complexity. The adventures and mishaps, both small and big, capture the range of human experience-from love and betrayal to the pursuit of knowledge and the grappling with mortality. They symbolize the interchangeability and collective quality of human experience.

Moreover, in this vast landscape of experience, the psychological stands out, from psychic wounds to psychic shocks. It acknowledges the profound yet often intangible ways the mind influences and shapes our interpretation of events. Many of these mini-stories involve discovery, whether it's the discovery of betrayal, identity, or even strange plants. The motif of discovery aligns with the psychological focus, as both delve into the hidden or submerged layers of human existence.

In a way, "By an Earthquake" is a challenging poetic journey that plays with the traditional boundaries of the form. It encourages its readers to embrace the untidiness of life itself, suggesting that it's within this chaos that the most authentic aspects of human experience lie. This piece may not offer resolution, but it certainly provides a nuanced, multi-layered portrayal of the complexities of life. It's a poetic testament to the myriad stories that constitute our collective narrative, each complicated and simple, each its own tiny earthquake in the vast terrain of human experience.

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