SELECTED POEMS ALSO BY JOHN ASHBERY Poetry SOME TREES THE TENNIS COURT OATH RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS THE DOUBLE DREAM OF SPRING THREE POEMS THE VERMONT NOTEBOOK SELF-PORTRAIT IN A CONVEX MIRROR HOUSEBOAT DAYS AS WE KNOW SHADOW TRAIN A WAVE Fiction A NEST OF NINNIES (with James Schuyler) Plays THREE PLAYS SELECTED POEMS JOHN ASHBERY ELISABt'Tlf SIFTON BOOKS VIKING ELISABETH SIYrON BOOKS . VIKING Viking Penguin Inc., 40 West 23rd Street, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Limited, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada UR IB4 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Copyright © John Ashbery, 1985 All rights reserved First published in 1985 by Viking Penguin Inc. Published simultaneously in Canada Page 349 constitutes an extension ofthis copyright page. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Ashbery, John. Selected poems. "Elisabeth Sifton books." Includes index. I. Title. PS350l.S475M 1985 811'.54 85-40549 ISBN 0-670-80917-9 Printed in the United States of America by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, Ilarrisonburg, Virginia Set in Janson Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means· (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission ofboth the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. CONTENTS From SOME TREES Two Scenes 3 Popular Songs 4 The Instruction Manual 5 The Grapevine 9 A Boy 10 ( ;Iazunoviana II The Picture of Little J. A. in a Prospect of Flowers 12 Sonnet 14 The Young Son 15 Frrors 16 Illustration 17 Some Trees 19 ,'he Painter 20 \lId You Know 22 I It- 24 .\ I,oog Novel 26 11\l" Pied Piper 27 II' l.ivre est sur la table 28 hOIll 'flIF; TRNNIS COURT OATH Ihoughts of a Young Girl 31 "Ilow Milch I.ollgn Will I Be Ahle to Inhahit the I )i\'ille Sepulcher . White Roses 361 Our Youth 37 ' An Additional Poem 39 I Faust 40 A Last World 42 From The New Realism 46 From RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS Rivers and Mountains 49 Last Month 52 If the Birds Knew 53 Into the Dusk-Charged Air 54 The Ecclesiast 59 The Recent Past 61 A Blessing in Disguise 62 Clepsydra 63 From The Skaters 71 From THE DOUBLE DREAM OF SPRING The Task 83 Spring Day 84 Plainness in Diversity 86 Soonest Mended 87 Summer 90 It Was Raining in the Capital <)1 Variations, Calypso and Fugue on a Theme of Ella Wheeler Wilcox 94 Song 100 I>ccoy 101 h,r John Clare 103 1-;lIm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape 105 1';lrcrgon 107 S"me Words 109 l'l,e Bungalows 114 Ihe Chateau Hardware 117 ';ortcs Vergilianac 118 hOlll THREE POEMS Ihe System 123 110111 SELF-PORTRAIT IN A CONVEX MIRROR \ '; ()ne Put Drunk into the Packet-Boat 163 Worsening Situation 165 h ,rl ics Flick 166 \', Vou Came from the Holy Land 167 -;. Iwherazadc 169 1;1;111(1 Calop 172 Ilop (I' My Thumb 180 I\li\nl h.-clings 182 ,I',i'-'-/lfll/Jildcr 184 Oleum Misericordiae 186 Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror 188 From HOUSEBOAT DAYS Street Musicians 207 The Other Tradition 208 Variant 210 Wooden Buildings 211 Pyrography 212 The Gazing Grain 215 Unctuous Platitudes 216 The Couple in the Next Room 217 Business Personals 218 Crazy Weather 221 On the Towpath 222 Bird's-Eye View of the Tool and Die Co. 224 Wet Casements 225 Saying It to Keep It from Happening 226 Daffy Duck in Hollywood 227 Houseboat Days 231 The Lament upon the Waters 233 And Vt Pictura Poesis Is Her Name 235 What Is Poetry 236 And Others, Vaguer Presences 237 The Wrong Kind of Insurance 238 Friends 240 'I'he ke-(:rcam Wars 242 Blue Sonata 243 Syringa 245 hom Fantasia on "The Nut-Brown Maid" 248 1'1"111 AS WE KNOW hom Litany 253 ~;ilhouette 257 (\ 1:111 Y Wagons Ago 258 .\-; We Know 259 ( II hcrwise 260 I· II ,wcring Death 261 I hUllted Landscape 262 l\ Iv Erotic Double 265 I, :.ill Rising out of the Sea 266 1,111' Echo 267 \ IIII I'd Love You to Be in It 268 1.'1 ll'slry 269 \I ,( IVC Poem 270 1Ills (:onfiguration 271 I hnr Day 273 \ ICHlc Poem 274 II ()lhcr Cindy 275 1 I PI\lral of "Jack-in-the-Box" 277 1'111111 SII i\ now TRA IN II... Pursuit of Ilappincss 281 l'III11Shill~ Ihl" Myth 282 Paradoxes and Oxymorons 283 Another Chain Letter 284 The Ivory Tower 285 At the Inn 286 The Absence of a Noble Presence 287 Qualm 288 Here Everything Is Still Floating 289 Some Old Tires 290 Something Similar 291 Or in My Throat 292 Untilted 293 The Leasing of September 294 Unusual Precautions 295 We Hesitate 296 Frontispiece 297 The Vegetarians 298 From A WAVE At North Farm 301 The Songs We Know Best 302 Landscape (After Baudelaire) 305 Just Walking Around 306 The Ongoing Story 307 Thank You for Not Cooperating 308 More Pleasant Adventures 309 Purisl sWill Ohjcct 3I() 1'/ I bilw III The Lonedale Operator 314 I>arlene's Ilospital 316 Whatever It Is, Wherever You Are 319 i\ Wave 322 Illdex 345 From SOME TREES FWO SCENES We see us as we truly behave: From every corner comes a distinctive offering. The train comes bearing joy; The sparks it strikes illuminate the table. Destiny guides the water-pilot, and it is destiny. For long we hadn't heard so much news, such noise. The day was warm and pleasant. "We see you in your hair, Air resting around the tips of mountains." II A fine rain anoints the canal machinery. This is perhaps a day of general honesty Without example in the world's history Though the fumes are not of a singular authority And indeed are dryas poverty. Terrific units are on an old man In the blue shadow of some paint eans As laughing cadets say, "In the evening Everything has a schedule, if you can find out what it is." POPULAR SONGS He continued to consult her for her beauty (The host gone to a longing grave). The story then resumed in day coaches Both bravely eyed the finer dust on the blue. That summer ("The worst ever") she stayed in the car with the cur. That was something between her legs. Alton had been getting letters from his mother About the payments-half the flood Over and what about the net rest of the year? Who cares? Anyway (you know how thirsty they were) The extra worry began it-on the Blue blue mountain-she never set foot And then and there. Meanwhile the host Mourned her quiet tenure. They all stayed chatting. No one did much about cating. The tears came and stopped, came and stopped, until Becoming thc guano-lightened summer night landscape, All onc glow, one mild laugh lasting ages. Some precision, he fumed into his soup. You laugh. There is no peace in the fountain. The footmen smile and shift. The mountain Rises nightly to disappointed stands Dining in "The Gardens of the Moon." There is no way to prevent this Or the expectation of disappointment. All are aware, some carry a secret Better, of hands emulating deeds Of days untrustworthy. But these may decide. The face extended its sorrowing light Far out over them. And now silent as a group The actors prepare their first decline. ./ I'/IE INSTRUCTION MANUAL \s I sit looking out of a window of the building I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the uses of a new metal. look down into the street and sec people, each walking with an IIIner peace, \lId envy them-they arc so far away from me! r'\lol one of them has to worry about getting out this manual on schedule, \lId, as my way is, I begin to dream, resting my dbows on the desk :llId leaning out of the window a little, ( .1 dim Guadalajara! City of rose-colored flowers! , .1 V r wanted most to sec, and most did not sec, in Mexico! Itlll I fancy I sec, under the press of having to write the instruction 11I:lIlual, \"111" public sljuarc, city, with its daborate linle bandstand! I h,' band is playing Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. \ '''lind stand the flower girh, handing out rose- and lemon-colored 11 ••\Vers, I .. h attractive in her rose-and-blue striped dress (Oh! such shades of ,,o';e and blue), \ ,," lIearby is the little \vhite booth where women in green serve you 1',1 (','n and yellow fruit. II.. couples are parading; everyone is in a holiday mood. I "',1, leading the parade, is a dapper fdlow ( 1"i1wd in deep blue. On his head sits a white hat \ 0" I he wears a mustache, which has been trimmed for the occasion. I I", dear one, his wife, is young and pretty; her shawl is rose, pink, and \\ 1111 e, 1 I. I slippers arc patent leather, in the American fashion, \ lid she carries a fan, for she is modest, and does not want the crowd I" ';("(' her fan: too often. II", ('\TI"v1l1,t!v IS so bllsy with his wife or loved one I doubt they would notice the mustachioed man's wife.