John Ashbery
American poet whose Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror won the Pulitzer, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award in 1975 and who remained the dominant American poet of his generation. His long poem Flow Chart exemplifies his expansive, digressive style.
Works
- Some TreesModernist poems exploring syntax, meaning, and the nature of literary language
- The Tennis Court OathFragmented narrative attempting legal verdict on abstract concepts and love
- Rivers and MountainsLyric poems investigating relationships between perception, time, and aesthetic form
- Self-Portrait in a Convex MirrorSelf-reflexive meditation using ekphrasis to explore identity, art, and consciousness
- A WaveLong poem using accumulation and digression to explore consciousness and experience