[New-Poetry] Re: Dylan and Ashbery

[David Graham]

Dylan's lyrics do frequently have a lot of surrealism in them, and that's
one of Ashbery's wellsprings, too.  I've always thought Dylan's stuff works
best lyrically when he sticks closest to fairly traditional forms and
modes--the blues, the ballad tradition, and especially when he employs
narrative.  However fractured and dreamy the stories he tells, they're often
stories in a way never approached or attempted by Ashbery.  Nothing in
Ashbery quite like "Tangled Up in Blue," "Desolation Row," or "It's All Over
Now, Baby Blue."  Something like "Gates of Eden," though--yeah, a bit  more
Ashberyian, possibly.

I remember how forcefully struck I was upon first reading Ashbery's
journalism and art reviews--there's nothing remotely Ashberyian about them,
in terms of style. Personally, I think it's too bad he has seldom applied
his formidible skills to more coherent poetic utterance.  Yes, I enjoy the
vagaries of thought from time to time, but he's only using a small slice of
his powers, I often feel.


On 5/3/06 11:21 AM, "opus40-01 at opus40.org" <opus40-01 at opus40.org> wrote:

> 
> Coming from, to some degree, the same place? Are songs like "Just Like Tom
> Thumb's Blues" and "Gates of Eden" the same sort of explorations of the
> vagaries of thought as Ashbery's poems?
> 
> 
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