Elective Infinities
Elective Infinities - meaning Summary
Surreal Drift of Everyday Moments
John Ashbery’s Elective Infinities presents a sequence of disjointed, dreamlike vignettes that shift between everyday announcements, misrecognitions, and whimsical imagery. The speaker encounters odd figures—a surprised fool, a traffic-directing statue, a dauphin—and treats motion and process as the poem’s stabilizing principle. Rather than telling a single story, it records associative impressions and small absurdities, producing a tone of amused detachment that makes dislocation feel ordinary.
Read Complete AnalysesThirsty? They race across ampersands, scrolling. He isn't sure it's his head. There's a delay right now. Smoke backed up. Ladies please remove hats. It was all over by morning. The village idiot was surprised to see us. "...thought you were in Normandy." Like all pendulums we were surprised, then slightly miffed at what seemed to be happening back in the bushes. Keep your ornaments, if that's what they are. Return to sender, arse. At the intersection a statue of a policeman was directing traffic. It seemed like a vacation, halloween or something. Process was the only real thing that happened. We wove closer to the abyss, a maze of sunflowers. The dauphin said to take our time.
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