Original poem reprinted online here: "Paradoxes and Oxymorons" by John Ashbery Originally read: July 27, 2013 (I printed the poem out again 11/4) More information about the Poet: John Ashbery This is a poem that the Poetry Foundation has an extensive guide and analysis on to not only understand the poem, but to teach the poem to any age level. For me, I read the poem and I thought it was a very good poem talking about learning about poetry. Not necessarily an Ars Poetica, but this is a poem, I feel, a lot of students, young or old, can relate to. The first stanza is very straight forward, "The poem is concerned with language on a very plain level. / Look at it talking to you. You look out a window." The speaker sets up a relationship between the reader and the poem -- something amiss, "Or pretend to fidget. / You have it but you don't have it. / You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other." Confidence. Perhaps. It's the abi...
Formerly the RetailMFA, This is the Poetry Blog of Darrell Dela Cruz