John Ashbery

Honestly

memory doubt free verse dreamlike

Honestly - meaning Summary

Evasive Memory and Shifting Perspective

The poem presents a wandering, conversational voice that mixes surreal vignettes with uncertain memory. It sketches a social scene—distance from others, a reluctance to join, shared dread—and offers images of escape through ice and smoke and tactile reassurance. The speaker vacillates between irony and earnestness about public life, happiness, and transcendence, ending on a quietly self-aware admission that a solution exists but remains elusive.

Read Complete Analyses

We could send you out there to join the cackle squad, but hey, that highly accomplished, thinly regarded equestrian—well there was no way he was going to join the others’ field trip. Wouldn’t put his head on the table. But here’s the thing: They had owned great dread, knew of a way to get away from here through ice and smoke always clutching her fingers, like it says to do. Once we were passionate about the police, yawned in the teeth of pixels, but a far rumor blanked us out. We bathed in moonshine. Now, experts disagree. Were we unhappy or sublime? We’ll have to wait until the next time an angel comes rapping at the door to rejoice docently. (I know there’s a way to do this.)

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