People Behaving Badly a Concern
People Behaving Badly a Concern - meaning Summary
Social Disorder and Surreal Intimacy
Ashbery's 'People Behaving Badly a Concern' lists scenes of urban disorder—panhandling, public urination, nudity—while a speaker alternates between complaint and intimate address. The poem blends civic chaos with surreal, domestic details, collapsing public unrest and personal relations into a single noisy, ambiguous scene. The speaker asks for civility even as odd images and ironic commentary persist. A parenthetical admonition ends the piece, undercutting authority with dark humor.
Read Complete AnalysesAggressive panhandling, public urination, verbal threats, public nudity and violation of the open container law followed us down the days, for why are we here much longer, or even this long? I ask you to be civil and not interrupt night's business. It was fun getting used to you, who couldn't have been more nicer. This was as modern as it had ever been. They were influenced by him: some dirty magazine on the air tonight. (Amid the chaos, reports of survivors.) Didn't the flowers' restoration cat fugue keep spilling, and like that? It wouldn't be the first time, either. The pro-taffeta get up and laugh, investigate or communicate. The night you were going to stay up late, others will kiss, and he talks about you, and I don't know what. Come in, anyway, and don't lack for tales of the Assertion. We're talking civilian unrest. Yes, well, maybe you should take one. (Do not bite or chew.)
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