Where shall I wander - The Library of the Uncommons

81 pages

English language

Published June 9, 2005 by Ecco.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-076529-3
OCLC Number:: 55847221

(1 review)

You meant more than life to me. I livedthrough you not knowing, not knowing Iwas living.I learned that you called for me. I came towhere you were living, up a stair. Therewas no one there.No one to appreciate me. The legality of itupset a chair. Many times to celebratewe were called together and wherewe had been there was nothing there,nothing that is anywhere. We passed obliquely,leaving no stare. When the sun was done muttering,in an optimistic way, it was time to leave that there.-- from "The New Higher"

4 editions

4thace reviewed Where shall I wander by John Ashbery

Review of 'Where shall I wander' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is another book by someone considered to have been one of the most important poets in English of recent time. It has the same features I saw in his posthumous collection [b:Parallel Movement of the Hands: Five Unfinished Longer Works|55338967|Parallel Movement of the Hands Five Unfinished Longer Works|John Ashbery|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604992089l/55338967.SX50.jpg|69426849], with phrases and sentences which individually seem okay but don't make much sense when they are placed up against me another, parallel constructions that seem oddly mismatched, statements that sound very confident about themselves in the middle or the end of a poem which stick out in baffling ways. It feels lively and active to me if I can put up with the many tangents and contradictions. It can convey emotion, humor, frequently, loss and sadness too. He often refers to things which inspired the writing which the reader has no immediate access to. Somehow he makes it …

This is another book by someone considered to have been one of the most important poets in English of recent time. It has the same features I saw in his posthumous collection [b:Parallel Movement of the Hands: Five Unfinished Longer Works|55338967|Parallel Movement of the Hands Five Unfinished Longer Works|John Ashbery|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604992089l/55338967.SX50.jpg|69426849], with phrases and sentences which individually seem okay but don't make much sense when they are placed up against me another, parallel constructions that seem oddly mismatched, statements that sound very confident about themselves in the middle or the end of a poem which stick out in baffling ways. It feels lively and active to me if I can put up with the many tangents and contradictions. It can convey emotion, humor, frequently, loss and sadness too. He often refers to things which inspired the writing which the reader has no immediate access to. Somehow he makes it clear this is all intentional, not in a way that makes him superior, but as an exercise in the possibilities of language. The title is me of the most straightforward admissions - reading this is an experience of wandering. If you are willing to do this it can be a pleasure.