John Ashbery

Leave the Hand in

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Leave the Hand in - meaning Summary

Hesitation Within Domestic Courtship

John Ashbery's 'Leave the Hand in' sketches a speaker negotiating friendship and courtship with equal measures of playfulness and unease. Everyday incidents—running in streets, after-dinner wraparound—sit alongside darker metaphors such as plague and marshland. The voice alternates requests for choice and concealment, suggesting reluctance, ambiguity, and the risk relationships bring. The poem leaves social intentions unresolved, portraying intimacy as both mundane choreography and a potentially disruptive force.

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Furthermore, Mr. Tuttle used to have to run in the streets. Now, each time friendship happens, they're fully booked. Sporting with amaryllis in the shade is all fine and good, but when your sparring partner gets there first you wonder if it was all worth it. "Yes, why do it?" I'm on hold. It will take quite a lot for this music to grow on me. I meant no harm. I've helped him from getting stuck before. Dumb thing. All my appetites are friendly. Children too are free to go and come as they please. I ask you only to choose between us, then shut down this election. But don't reveal too much of your hand at any given time. Then up and pipes the major, leave the hand in, or change the vows. The bold, enduring menace of courtship is upon us like the plague, and none of us can say what trouble will be precipitated once it has had its way with us. Our home is marshland. After dinner was wraparound. You got a tender little look at it. Outside, it never did turn golden.

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