An Ironic Abuse of the Oppressive Form: John Ashbery and the Sestina as an Occasion for Postmodern Ars Poetica

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article attempts to illuminate a coherent aesthetic principle that informs Ashbery’s continued commitment to, if not respect for, the sestina form, among other traditional poetic forms. Examining two representative sestinas of John Ashbery through close reading that focuses on the inevitable interrelation between form and meaning, this article will discuss how Ashbery asserts poetry’s ways of existing in and out of itself and endows the sestina form with newfound relevance as a structural and rhetorical means to his meta-poetic ends. It will then demonstrate how Ashbery transforms the old-fashioned fixed form into a charming poetic device for the younger generation of poets who not only writes with playful and parodic rage but also experiments and engages with traditional forms in a more serious and ambitious fashion.