Two Scenes
Two Scenes - meaning Summary
Shifting Ambiguous Everyday Scenes
John Ashbery's 'Two Scenes' presents two brief, fragmentary tableaux that juxtapose public bustle and quiet labor. The poem collects stray observations—trains, water pilots, canal machinery, laughing cadets—so ordinary detail becomes a hazy report on perception and social behavior. Voices and descriptions overlap without clear narrative, producing a feeling of casual reportage and ironic distance. The result invites readers to read meaning from assembled fragments rather than a single coherent story.
Read Complete AnalysesI We see us as we truly behave: From every corner comes a distinctive offering. The train comes bearing joy; The sparks it strikes illuminate the table. Destiny guides the water-pilot, and it is destiny. For long we hadn’t heard so much news, such noise. The day was warm and pleasant. “We see you in your hair, Air resting around the tips of mountains.” II A fine rain anoints the canal machinery. This is perhaps a day of general honesty Without example in the world’s history Though the fumes are not of a singular authority And indeed are dry as poverty. Terrific units are on an old man In the blue shadow of some paint cans As laughing cadets say, “In the evening Everything has a schedule, if you can find out what it is.”
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