Days of 1948
Days of 1948 - meaning Summary
Memory and Dislocation
John Ashbery's 'Days of 1948' presents a fragmented encounter with grief and memory. Voices shift between affectionate recollection and surreal intrusions, collapsing past gatherings and present bewilderment. Familiar scenes—an old house, Thanksgiving, an opera house—surface like half-remembered images while ironic, playful lines undercut solemnity. The poem captures how loss and social ritual mingle with language's oddities, leaving identity and sentiment unsettled rather than resolved.
Read Complete AnalysesFriends of the deceased pole-vault toward us. That's creepy. Not to be infiltrated, his pastures stretch to the moon, the old place. Besides which he kept telling us how nice we were, and that was something. Was it in the old house on the wires? Thanksgiving earlier, with all the folks you’ve loved for years, vagabond days, nights of mystery? Yes boys, that’s where my money goes. Do you solemnly participate now, where the tide is? Boink I love you. Is that what you heard about him that lets you distinguish between us in the old opera house, and you wake up screaming “Arriba!”
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