The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

 
river of prepositions


In the New Yorker's profile of John Ashbery last month (11/7/05), the author Larissa MacFarquhar describes the poet's writing process as "lowering a bucket down into what feels like a kind of underground stream flowing through his mind. . . . Whatever his bucket brings up will be the poem."

Later in the same piece, the author describes Ashbery's writing his 1972 "The New Spirit":

He types like mad, composing as fast as he can type, which is fast. He barely thinks about what he is doing. . . . the page is a solid mass of type. . . . He works for four or five months, and then it's as if a timer had gone off in his head and he realizes that the poem is finished.

"The New Spirit" is approximately 51 pages long.

I decided that one way among several to make the poem more readable to myself was to pay attention to how Ashbery's line of thought constantly reverses itself, in a rhythmic via negativa of continual self-cancellations, zigzags, unsayings and contradictions.

I decided that the prepositions carry most of the weight of these switchbacks, particularly what I guess you could call the Prepositions of Reversal: "but," "yet," despite" and so on.

Below, then, is my transcription of the entire text of "The New Spirit," cutting out all the unimportant words.

  
     

  

                                 but           




                 but                           


                        but                     





     but                                   


         but                                 


                but                            


                  but


                    but










                                            but


But


                                        yet

except

                but





          But

            yet  


                            though

    yet

                                           lest

   yet


              but


                                       But


            but

    but


                                but


                   but



                                                  though



                           but


                                      without
















But



Yet

                                                                     But


           yet


                                                         though


                                             but


                              though


But                        yet


                                           but


                                               But

















                                                                   But



            but

                       though


                   yet

                but 

  











         but


             But




        But






                       but


                                              but


             even though

                                 but


But


                                                                       despite



           But






                                                  but



                      but












but


                                               though


                                            but



but






                         but



              but



                     Even


                                    despite


                         Despite



                            but

                                    but 





















                but

          But                       


But






               but


                        but


                     But



                             but



           yet


               but



                                    But



                            although


But


                                      Yet


       but



                     but



          but


      but                             



                      unless












                           But


               though


                       Nevertheless



           yet


                          except



         yet


                            yet


                                   but


though



           though


         but


                    even though


                though

              but                      despite


                         but


                                           but


                                      but

                                     but


             but


                                  but


                     except


                          but

                                but

                                      but


                                 But


                but



                     but


    but



                but      






                               even though


                  despite


                But



but

         even


                    but



buts


                                 But


except


                                yet


                but


                    but



                             But


                              but



         but


                      But



       though










Yet



Yet












    yet



      but


                                         but



                  Yet


But

          but



        but


but

                   but




                             but


             but




                       yet


                  But


                           though


   But



                           though




                    but


               but




But















But



                       but


    but


                                   but



                               yet



                   but


                                        but



            but

    But



But


              but




    but



                                  but







                          but



                      but



                    alas


                    but




                                      But



           but










                               but


          yet

    but




                          But


                                           but
 


                         But



                                    But



                              but

posted by TiR at 7:21 AM