And the necessity of producing for magazine deadlines had an effect on his other
work. If he could turn out a high volume of prose on demand, why not do the same
with poetry?
This led him to refine a speeded-up compositional method that he was already
experimenting with. It involved picking up found phrases and images, putting
them next to different phrases and images, inviting both brilliant accident and
bruising confusion. (Mr. Ashbery’s fans and detractors are defined by which they
find more of in his poetry.) Later came the hand-editing — splicing, trimming
and smoothing — to shape final results.
He was, in other words, making language-collages based on principles learned
from paper collages, which were in his hands, based on techniques learned from
films.
....
Interestingly, they are being brought to light at a time when Mr. Ashbery and
his poetry are being officially declared national monuments. Next month the
Library of America will publish “John Ashbery: Collected Poems 1956-1987,” a
1,050-page volume encompassing roughly half of his output. He is the first
living poet to be included in this canon-constructing literary series.
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