The Painter

by John Ashbery
Critical Appreciation
This poem is a masterpiece in literature. In ‘The Painter’ ,Ashbery touches upon some of the
basic concepts in imitative art. His aim is not to attempt a poetic compromise with the warring
schools of criticism. Rather he presents a situation in which the artistic creativity may come in
direct contrast with the demands of modem society. The poem presents the ambition of an
artist who wants to paint the sea. His desire is to present the sea on the canvas rather than to
paint it. He says that ”Nature, not art, might usurp the canvas” Ashbery draws a conclusion that
such an attempt would result in a total denial of modem urban values. Ashbery builds a relation
between the sea and the buildings in the very opening lines of the poem. The painter sits
between the symbols of nature and the jungle of cement and steel. He was enjoying his work
and expected that his subject would easily yield to creative reproduction, but his expectations
resulted in failure. Reality denied to be captured so easily by art. Ashbery compares his desire
to children’s view of prayer showing the simplicity of his desire. Ashbery contrasts the artist's
expectation to realistic theory of art claiming that even the mass naturalistic presentation of life
is still not nature as it exists in a different medium which changes its attributes. The artist with
this desire is unable to present reality and so “There was never any paint on the canvass”
Ashbery contrasts the artist with the people in the buildings. He focuses the basic difference
between their modes of thinking. They want to “put him to work” wishing him to paint
something less “angry and large”, something “more subject to a painter”, mood’. It is vivid that
they think art to be an imitative skill in the service of urban, commercial interests. It is “more
subject to…..a prayer” or as one may say ‘an order’. The concept of presentation of reality in
the sense that reality may actually “usurp” the canvas is strange to them. The artist’s choosing
his wife for a subject and making her “vast” is Ashbury’s way of defining disillusionment.
Ashbery being a jolly poet could hardly have expressed matrimonial love in any other way.
Anyhow this time it was as if the portrait “Had expressed itself without a brush”. With this
inspiration the artist now arises to paint with seawater, letting the medium of reality to be the
medium of artistic expression. This was as if the artistic creation would “wreck the canvas”,
putting an end to the illusion of projection and letting the reality to be expressed without any
alien medium of expression. This new mode of creativity in which the artist is overpowered by
his subject is disrespectful to the people in the buildings who consider it to be the case of “a
painter crucified by his subject”. Others declare it the egotistic expression of the artist's self and
not presentation of reality. Immaculate reality untouched with art is the final expression and
provokes a destructive harsh response form the people of the buildings. The portrait is thrown
into the sea where it becomes one with its subject and thus the expression of the subject
remains a prayer. The poem projects many contrasting views related to art and its relation to
reality and society. The creative artist stands between the sea and the buildings, i.e., between
nature and the urban civilization. The buildings are tall and crowded. The tallness of the
buildings also reflects the way the people hate the artist. But the artist sits with his back to the
buildings. His freedom of thoughts is met with advice from the buildings. People warn to “put
hint to work”. Ashbery with his usual fanciful way of presentation makes the artist paint his
wife whom he makes “Vast, like ruined buildings” He very cleverly hides whether the portrait of
the spouse was made in paint on the canvas or if it was a real-life portrait. The poem makes use
of figurative language throughout that making every simple detail stand for a more complicated
thought related with theory of art. As if forgetting itself the portrait, had confessed itself
without a brush, wrecks the canvas, crucified by his subject, all indications of a subject began to
fade, to howl, that was also a prayer, the sea swallowed the canvas and the brush”, all have
figurative meanings expressing or reflecting significant artistic concepts. Ashbery uses the word
prayer several times. In this poem every time meaning something different. The artist’s prayer
and the people’s hoot which was also a prayer have contrasted meanings and so Ashbery uses
the same word to mean different things to show how reality can be seen from many different
perspectives. Conclusively, Ashbery’s desire of painting led him to write this poem. The painter
is fully representative of Ashbery’s poetry. Ashbery used a persona to show his poetic incite.
The poet uses cinemascope images in the poem to make it as dynamic and visual as possible.
The Painter’s desire of immaculate and futuristic art remains only a prayer and longing. He is
not able to get the extraordinary because of the ordinary demands of the audience. The main
theme of the poem is that innovator, modem and creative artists am crucified by the traditional
and conventional people.

Melodic Train
by John Ashbery
Critical Appreciation
“Melodic Train” is an informative, symbolic and meditative poem by John Ashbery. It gives a
deep philosophy of life in a simple manner, which is typical of John Ashbery. The poem deals
with the image of a journey through train, but the poet travels through the deep secrets of
human mind and tries to analyze the complexity prevailing there. Personal feelings of the poet
about some of the touching realities and a curious blend of reality and imagination, makes it an
unforgettable commentary on the life around us. In short, apparently the poem is simple but it
has hidden philosophy which is beyond the reach of common readers. The start of the poem is
dramatic and a bit suspenseful, when we find the poet travelling through a train and is asked
about time by a young girl. However, her watch is a dummy and naturally there is no
conception of time on it. The poet realizes that the girl is wearing the watch just for fun, just as
sometimes adults use pipe or wears clothes for fun. He then begins to think about the train and
the way it travels across the valley. The train seems to him as a pair of pencil and ruler, moving
against the map of the mountains. To Ashbery, he and the little girl are the visitors who watch
the train as a symbol of curiosity.
As the poet thoroughly meditates over the various phenomena related with the journey on the
train, he also reaches an irritating aspect of it. The time-table of the trains, thus departure and
arrival, the affairs of the station and other such events are not comprehensible to poet. This
unclear system of trains creates a type of confusion and chaos on the stations as well. When
the train arrives at some station, breaking the norms of the schedule, there is sadness of the
faces of the children and concerns of the grownups. People look either for their relatives or
taxis so that they may be evacuated of a tense situation. The passengers leaning forward for
various taxi-cabs give an image of “tower of figures” to the poet. Ashbery being a poet and a
sensitive person has also noticed the nervous temperament of the people, right before reaching
the final destination. The passengers get so much anxious that they lose all the sympathy and
respect for others. This thought makes him sad and he asks a very stirring question:
“Why could not we have been more considerate?”
Further, the look on the face of the passengers makes him more tense as they seem
Dissatisfied and frustrated. However, the poet ardently hopes that anxiety of these people
would somehow diminish when they would reach their homes.
After such long thoughts about his fellow passengers, the attention of the poet is soon
Captured by the “bluish vague landscape”. He gets absorbed in the beauty of the nature and
forgets all that was going on in his mind for a long time. The poet tells us that by listening to the
others can make us to lose ourselves and loss contact with own selves. It is only by neglecting
the hustle and bustle around that we can enjoy the real beauty of the town around. However,
as the meditation of the poet and his various views about the entire journey go on, perhaps, he
too realizes the end or the approaching end of his railway journey. The idea of reaching his
destination creates the image in which the people gather, tossing hats and preparing for
welcome. However, all this seems quite too familiar to the poet, an event which has happened
a number of times prior to this. A deep critical analysis of the poem suggests that a surface
reading may mislead a naïve reader to take it as a poem describing a journey by train. The
poem is ambiguous and is quite symbolic. This ambiguity is created right at the start by the title
of the poem: “Melodic Train”. Now this suggests a smooth and rhythmical journey. But, the
content of the poem suggest that the title is ironical, as the journey is centered on chaos and
frustration. In fact, the journey conducted here may symbolize journey of man in this world, a
journey conducted in tension, anxiety, weariness. The poem is exploratory in nature and the
poet moves from known to the unknown, familiar to unfamiliar and above all from time to
timeless.
To conclude, we may say that it is typical Ashbery’s poetic style. The poem reveals his dramatic
as well as narrative talent as a poet. The philosophy of the poem may not be crystal clear but
the massage is very clear. In short, the poet has conveyed very deep thoughts in extra-ordinary
simple language.