Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Anticipated Stranger" by John Ashbery is a sparse yet intricate poem, nuanced in its brevity. The poem engages with the psychology of pain and expectation in an ambiguous, almost surreal manner.

It starts with an unusual assertion: "The bruise will stop by later." Bruises are normally marks left behind, not something one anticipates. In making the bruise a sentient being that "stops by," the poem immediately disrupts our common perceptions of pain, giving it an eerie agency and intentionality.

This unsettling personification of pain continues: "For now, the pain pauses in its round, / notes the time of day, the patient's temperature, / leaves a memo for the surrogate." The imagery evokes a medical atmosphere, and the "pain" here functions almost like a medical practitioner who takes notes and leaves memos. The clinical nature of this scene intensifies the anticipation and dread around the expected "bruise."

The memo left for the "surrogate" reflects a kind of bitter blame or scorn: "What the hell / did you think you were doing? I mean . . ." The message remains incomplete, as though words fail to capture the complexity of the situation or emotion, a tacit acknowledgment that some pains are too deep or complicated to be easily articulated. This incompleteness is further emphasized by the line, "Oh well, less said the better, they all say," perhaps suggesting that some traumas are better left unspoken, at least in conventional communication.

The poem's penultimate line, "I'll post this at the desk," is both mundane and mysterious. It suggests a resignation to procedures and the unalterable nature of certain events. This resignation brings us to the closing line: "God will find the pattern and break it." This line introduces a new dimension to the narrative-divine intervention. If the "pattern" refers to the cycle of pain and bruising, then the hope for a divine cessation offers a bleak sort of comfort. The use of the word "break" is particularly striking here, as it complements the earlier theme of physical pain, which often involves breakage of some sort-of skin, bone, or spirit.

It's worth noting the role of anticipation in the poem. From the anticipated bruise to the memo and finally to God's potential intervention, the poem is imbued with a sense of waiting, an expectation for change or resolution that seems to hang just beyond the poem's reach.

"Anticipated Stranger" thus captures a disquieting tension between the physical and metaphysical, between the inevitability of pain and the hope for divine intervention. The poem leaves us hanging in that delicate balance, in that quiet moment before the bruise appears, before the pattern-if ever-is broken.

Therefore, "Anticipated Stranger" can be seen as a meditation on the complex interplay between human vulnerability and cosmic design. It speaks to our innate dread of pain, the judgment we fear from ourselves and others, and our desperate hope for some form of salvation or relief, whether that comes from divine intervention or our own actions. Through its sparse language and vivid personification, the poem creates an atmosphere of waiting, not just for pain but for understanding, relief, or even transcendence. And it is in this waiting that the poem finds its haunting power, encapsulating the uncertainties and hopes that define the human experience.

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