John Ashbery

John Ashbery was born on a fruit farm in New York on July 28, 1927 (Ellmann, O'Clair, and Ramazani 385). He graduated from Harvard University in 1949, and then received his Master's Degree from Columbia University in 1951 (Ellmann, O'Clair, and Ramazani 386). He lived in France for several years and worked as an editor and writer for the New York Herald Tribune throughout the 1960's ("John Ashbery (1927- )"). After ten years he returned to New York, where he continued to work in the newspaper business. In 1974, he became an English professor at Brooklyn College, and in 1990 he began to teach at Bard College ("John Ashbery (1927- )"). Ashbery has written poetry ever since he was a child, and he gained his distinctive form as a child when he decided that he wanted to write things that no one would be able to understand. His early contact with nature has strongly affected the imagery in his poems, which have been compiled into more than twenty books. His anthologies have won multiple awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 ("John Ashbery").

John Ashbery's poem "At North Farm" was published in 1984, while he was teaching at Brooklyn College. As is traditional with Ashbery, "At North Farm" is in free verse and is very difficult to understand. Ashbery uses many phrases that are common, almost clich©-like, which act as a paradox to the poem's ambiguous meaning. Although some people have suggested that the "someone" described in the first stanza could be the messenger of death or fate, Ashbery himself stated that the person described is the messenger of love. This fact becomes clear when the reader becomes aware that in Finnish epics, "North Farm" is a region where heroes find their wives (Ellmann, O'Clair, and Ramazani 407). Ashbery starts the second stanza by evoking a memory of the Dust Bowl, when there was severe drought throughout the Midwest and very little vegetation was able to grow. In line twelve, the speaker asks if it is enough "that the dish of milk is set out at night." In medieval times, bowls of milk were often set out in order to appease magical creatures and stop them from causing mischief. Thus, the speaker is hoping that they will be able to keep the messenger of love away by pacifying him. On the other hand, the speaker cannot help thinking of the messenger of love sometimes, and wondering what he has in store for their lives.

Bibliography

Poem:

Ashbery, John. "At North Farm." The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Volume 2. Eds. Ellmann, Richard, Robert O'Clair, and Jahan Ramazani. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2003. 407. Print.

Biography:

Ellmann, Richard, Robert O'Clair, and Jahan Ramazani. The Norton Antholody of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Volume 2. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2003. Print.

"John Ashbery." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. Mar 8 2011. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/238. "John Ashbery (1927- )." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2010. Web. Mar 8 2011. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-ashbery