JOHN ASHBERY’S ESSAYISM: POETRY CLOSE TO PHILOSOPHY by MARY KAY BOYD (Under the Direction of Adam Parkes) ABSTRACT This dissertation reads John Ashbery’s poetry in the context of essayism and skeptical, pragmatic, and phenomenological philosophy. Essayism stems from Montaigne’s method for testing ideas without requiring final resolution and occurs in a variety of genres to explore possibilities with the skeptical doubt that the whole of anything can be seen; ideas are presented as a succession of experiments. Essayism considers philosophical concerns with “deliberate uncertainty,” assaying them by means of digression and interrogation. Ashbery adopts this essayistic attitude of inquiry in order to pursue his “broad” subject of “an individual consciousness confronting or confronted by a world of external phenomena.” His poetry continually probes existence as a dynamic relationship between a being and its world; this view evokes the phenomenological ontology of Heidegger, who defines existence as “being-in-the- world.” Ashbery’s poetry also suggests William James’s pragmatism, which looks toward real-world consequences rather than abstract principles, and James’s “stream of consciousness,” which takes into account the vague fringes of consciousness. I discuss the beginnings of Ashbery’s essayism in his early poetry, but focus primarily on his long works, each of which adopts a different form to answer the “major question that revolves around you, your being here.” The forms of Three Poems, Flow Chart, and Girls on the Run are meditative prose, autobiography, and narrative, respectively. Ashbery thereby addresses the same question from changing perspectives to attain a more complete view of his subject. Calling himself “a bricoleur as far as philosophy goes,” he reads philosophy that considers the contingent nature of experience and does not rely primarily on theoretical systematism; thus, the tentative method of essayism provides a complementary mode for the expression of his thought. I approach Ashbery’s poetry from two angles: how essayism’s philosophical inquiry motivates his poetry and what it uncovers. As a pragmatist, Ashbery asks ontological questions to help him determine, provisionally, his place among the phenomena in his experience. As a poet, Ashbery enlivens this process and his ideas with his unique language, style, and wit; he not only seeks to widen his circle of consciousness, but also acknowledges life’s dimly felt, incomprehensible mysteries. INDEX WORDS: Essayism, Skepticism, Phenomenological Ontology, Pragmatism, Meditation, Prose, Autobiography, Narrative, Consciousness, Bricoleur, American Poetry, Contemporary Poetry JOHN ASHBERY’S ESSAYISM: POETRY CLOSE TO PHILOSOPHY by MARY KAY BOYD B.A., The University of Georgia, 1964 M.A., Florida Atlantic University, 1990 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2008 © 2008 Mary Kay Boyd All Rights Reserved JOHN ASHBERY’S ESSAYISM: POETRY CLOSE TO PHILOSOPHY by MARY KAY BOYD Major Professor: Adam Parkes Committee: Kristin Boudreau Carl Rapp Aidan Wasley Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2008 iv DEDICATION With love and gratitude for everything they’ve done, been, and are for me over the course of my life, I dedicate this dissertation to everyone in my family—my parents, aunts and uncles, husband, brothers and sister, daughter, nephews, cousins, in-laws—particularly to my husband Ed, who honors my passion for my work at the same time as he holds our life together with the fundamental necessities of dinner and laughter; to my daughter Sarah, who is the essential philosopher-poet and grounding reality in my life; to my sister Bette McIntire, who keeps her generous ears and fine mind open in our ongoing, lifelong conversation; and to my brother Bob Giles, whose Ashberyan approach to life remains an inspiration for me, not only in this project but in all ways. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank Dr. Adam Parkes for his invaluable assistance throughout my doctoral studies, but especially during the lengthy work of this dissertation. At every point, his careful readings and constructive criticism helped me organize the argument, stay on topic, develop significant leads, and cut the “loosey goosey.” I am most fortunate and grateful to have had the educational experience of his guidance in this project. I thank Dr. Carl Rapp and Dr. Aidan Wasley, for their participation in my committee and for offering their thought-provoking comments and questions on the dissertation, and Dr. Kristin Boudreau, who helped solve several last-minute issues. I thank the many professors, both at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Georgia, whose courses fascinated me with what we learn from literature about life, the world, and ourselves. In particular, I am indebted to Dr. Susan Mitchell, Dr. Howard Pearce, Dr. Margaret Dickie, Dr. Hugh Kenner, and Dr. Douglas Anderson, all of whom inspired and encouraged my writing on Ashbery. I thank my friends whose kind support and confidence that I’d finally complete this dissertation motivated me, whose interesting diversions kept me going, and whose friendships continue to make life a pleasurable pilgrimage. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 ASHBERY AS ESSAYISTIC BRICOLEUR IN “MY PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE” .............................................................................29 Philosophical Essayism ...........................................................................................31 Montaigne’s Skeptical Essayism .............................................................................33 James’s Pragmatism ...............................................................................................38 Heidegger’s Phenomenological Ontology ..............................................................46 2 ESSAYISM IN ASHBERY’S EARLY POETRY ......................................................52 “Some Trees” ..........................................................................................................54 “Two Scenes” ..........................................................................................................57 “Clepsydra” ............................................................................................................68 3 THREE POEMS: POETRY AS MEDITATIVE PROSE ............................................93 Prose as a Form of Poetry ........................................................................................97 The Metaphor of Landscape for the Expansion of Consciousness .......................106 Meditative Essayism ..............................................................................................118 vii 4 FLOW CHART AS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POETRY ..........................................147 “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” as Autobiographical Forerunner ....................157 Autobiographical Essayism ...................................................................................163 5 GIRLS ON THE RUN AS NARRATIVE POETRY ..................................................196 Narrative Forerunners ............................................................................................200 Narrative Form ......................................................................................................217 Narrative Essayism ................................................................................................224 EPILOGUE: ASHBERY’S ESSAYISM—A WANDERING PILGRIMAGE ...........................245 NOTES .........................................................................................................................................257 WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................286 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AG April Galleons AWK As We Know CYHB Can You Hear, Bird DDS The Double Dream of Spring FC Flow Chart GR Girls on the Run HD Houseboat Days NN A Nest of Ninnies RM Rivers and Mountains RS Reported Sightings SP Selected Prose SPCM Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror ST Some Trees TCO The Tennis Court Oath TP Three Poems WSIW Where Shall I Wander WC A Worldly County 1 INTRODUCTION An interviewer once asked John Ashbery whether he thought of himself as a philosophical poet and whether he read much in philosophy. “No,” he replied (Labrie 31). This terse denial underscores Ashbery’s well-known lack of interest in discussing his poetry’s possible connection with philosophy. He may have believed such a categorization would limit the scope of his poetry in readers’ eyes, or he may have wanted to dissociate himself from the common perception of philosophy as abstract theory unconnected to real-life concerns. Regardless of his reason, his preference for keeping philosophy out of the discussion of his poetry was consistent with, though perhaps not driven by, the aims of New Criticism, which was losing its position of dominance in the United States due to the rise of literary theory.1