John Ashbery

Meditations of a Parrot

memory free verse dreamlike

Meditations of a Parrot - meaning Summary

Fragmented Memory and Voice

The poem presents a parrot's scattered utterances as a sequence of vivid, incongruous images and interrupted speech. Objects and scenes - rocks, sea, a girl's command, a claimed origin in Spain, a purchased life, and a ruined house - appear in quick succession, linked more by mood than logic. These fragments suggest displacement, the mixing of memory and repetition, and a voice that repeats human stories without fully owning them.

Read Complete Analyses

Oh the rocks and the thimble The oasis and the bed Oh the jacket and the roses. All sweetly stood up the sea to me Like blue cornflakes in a white bowl. The girl said, “Watch this.” I come from Spain, I said. I was purchased at a fair. She said, “None of us know. “There was a house once Of dazzling canopies And halls like a keyboard. “These the waves tore in pieces.” (His old wound— And all day: Robin Hood! Robin Hood!)

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