John Ashbery

A Voice from the Fireplace

identity free verse dreamlike

A Voice from the Fireplace - meaning Summary

Everyday Images, Elusive Self-formation

Ashbery's poem follows a wandering, conversational voice that strings together domestic and surreal images. The speaker moves between hesitation, comic asides and moments of mild self-reproach, treating ordinary tasks and odd occurrences as material for identity-making. Recurrent motifs—eggs, mailers, training wheels—suggest stalled projects and tentative self-formation. The poem resists a single narrative or resolution, favoring associative shifts that mimic how meaning is assembled and then abandoned.

Read Complete Analyses

Like a windup denture in a joke store fate approaches, leans quietly. Let's see . . . There was moreover meaning in the last clause, meaning we couldn't equate from what was happening to us down the block. We approached with some hesitancy: Let "I dare not" wait upon "I would." Wasn't it April? Weren't things more likely to last in this or any season? Rhymes we like. More than rhythm, they provide a life preserver for embarrassing sorties. Um, someday we'll be grown up too, the desk lights not cancel the barge as it approaches the corner of avenues. Well, we sweated that out. It amounts to self-importance. Whether the sea is a vernacular one only heroes can describe. Why don't you pluck me one? Seems they all rushed to the other side of the deck, causing alarm. Wind shriveled the rags that were left. Hold on a minute, we'll get you aloft. No sense taking up time with vellum sunsets, he hears, and cannot stay. The whitish, gluey smell of the forest imbibes our earnings in a dream. Egg whites dry at room temperature. In my mature moments I was robotic like you but never canceled my interest. We all attempt starting out, yet few undergo the first few days of orientation lightly. Which is funny, I mean with so many around to project enlightenment or entertainment. If you live in a wren house you'll quickly understand what I mean. That, needless to say, was the last time I heard from them. I continue to get their flyers in the mail but the project remains uninhabited. Flowers and goats cram the entrance with something you can see over. The orange sea propels itself lightly forward, ever in quest of spectators, but you can only do just so much in the way of self-formation. I hadn't expected it to be otherwise, yet it doesn't seem right. Neither is it unjust, only pro forma. Nights imply seasons and much in the way of impish narrative, while in daylight it's a matter of getting flush with the pavement. Don't forget to check every box on the front door and leave change for the milkman. Too bad they spotted us. Like I say, no jury will ever convict he or I. Off you go then. An egg is a puzzle, a tree a piece of that puzzle. I've had a pleasant but uneven time. My helpmates could aver as much. Let us know how much we owe you. The balloon is ascending above ferns, teacup chimneys, striped stockings. So long training wheels. I'm gone for three weeks at a time.

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