We're revisiting our PennSound author page for John Ashbery today, thanks to a classic recording that's recently been broken up into segmented MP3 files by according to theme.Originally taking place on May 27, 1973, this seventy-minute interview with Ashbery was conducted by Brett Lauer, which eventually saw print in the fall 1974 issue of Confrontation. Split across three sides of two C60 cassettes, this wide ranging conversation starts off with a few topics that seem like natural points of entry for the notoriously challenging poet: "Ashbery's Biography," "How Does One Read Ashbery's Poetry?," "An Ideal Reader," and "Opaqueness." From there it moves into questions of translation and the essential nature of American poetry, along with the impact of Ashbery's Guggenheim Fellowship and his general influences.
As Lauer flips the tape he starts getting into close readings of some of the poet's best-known work, including "The Tennis Court Oath," "Europe," "Some Trees," and Three Poems, as well as discussing the influence of his fellow New York School compatriots, the influence of his work as an art critic, and the shadow cast by Auden. The interview concludes in an ekphrastic mode with more talk of the links between the visual arts and poetry, as well as how music shapes Ashbery's work.
This newly segmented interview is but one of more than a thousand files you'll find on PennSound's Ashbery author page, which starts with a 1951 student presentation of his play Everyman in Cambridge and ends with home recordings made not long before his death in 2017. Click here to start listening to the aforementioned interview, and here to browse our Ashbery author page from the top.
