[New-Poetry] Ashes, ashes, we all fall down

[David Graham]

As part of National Too Much Poetry Month, NewPo is pleased to offer  
its first Ashbery quiz.

Ready?

Here's a poem from Mr. Ashbery's most recent book:

The Inchcape Rock

Prop up the "meaning,"
take the trash out, the dog for a walk,
give the old balls a scratch, apologize for three things
by Friday--oh quiet noumenon
of my soul, this is it, right?
You lost the key and the answer is inside
somewhere, and where are you going to breathe?
The box is shut that knew you
and all your friends,
voices that could have spoken in your behalf ...

Why, what did you want me to do with them?
Half a document is sufficient to this
weather, wild time, excrescence, more.
Rumors sift across a bald apologia.
The feet are here.

--John Ashbery. A Worldly Country.  HarperCollins, 2007.
_______________________

Which of the following descriptions best captures the above poem's  
theme?

A) A poem must not mean but be.

B) The poet imagines himself dying, and then dead, enclosed in a  
coffin from which his spirit has departed.

C)  Life is a ravishing disappointment, most of the time, but oh well.

D)  Getting old is a real bitch, but the supreme fiction never dies.

E)  Even our closest friendships are riddled with rumors, missed  
connections, and contradictory memories.


Extra credit:

One of the above descriptions was actually written by a prominent  
critic.  Identify which one, and for extra-extra credit, name the  
critic.
========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz

Poetry Library:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
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