John Ashbery and American Poetry. By DAVID HERD. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2000. vii+245 pp. 45 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-7190-5597-0.
In this useful (though misleadingly entitled) study David Herd explores the 'occasional' nature of Ashbery's poetry. By this he means occasional in the traditional poetic sense, and also how the poem tropes the occasion of its own making. This helps characterize Ashbery's poetry, since in aspiring to write a poem 'appropriate to the ...