At North Farm
Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you,
At incredible speed, traveling day and night,
Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.
But will he know where to find you,
Recognize you when he sees you,
Give you the thing he has for you?
Hardly anything grows here,
Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,
The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.
The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;
Birds darken the sky. Is it enough
That the dish of milk is set out at night,
That we think of him sometimes,
Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?
John Ashbery
Some questions: Why is that third line so long? Why is Ashbery so vague with the details here ("Somewhere," "Sometimes," "the thing he has for you," etc.). Does the tone change anywhere in this poem? Where? Why a bowl of milk? What does that suggest about who or what he might be expecting? Who do you think is traveling?
I think he is vague with his word choice so the reader can fill in those blanks. By saying "somewhere", the reader can picture where they want it to be. It's more interactive that way, I guess. It's also more personal. Sometimes poems can be more easily related to when they aren't explained as well. If the reader filled in every question the reader had, they would simply be reading the poem, and not imagining it. It allows us to finish the poem, to make it what we want.
ReplyDeleteThe third line is long because Ashbery wants to convey that particular statement as whole. Also, I do not think it would make much sense if it was broken down into smaller segments. I think the tone changes when he asks questions in this piece of poetry. The milk is a symbolization of a part of the farm and he might be expecting an animal of some sort. The narrator is traveling throughout the whole poem on the journey he takes.
ReplyDeleteI think the details in the poem are so vague so that you can make the poem whatever you want it to be and you can imagine how you want it instead of someone telling you what to picture.
ReplyDeleteI think Ashbery left the poem vague, so you could easily relate the poem to yourself or a certain situation.
ReplyDeleteI think that the first stanza of this poem almost sounds like the person is looking for the one he/she loves. I'm a huge romantic, so I can turn anything into a romantic setting. I don't know if that's what the writer is aiming at, but when he writes "At incredible speed, traveling day and night,
ReplyDeleteThrough blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.", it's almost like he is traveling as fast as he can to get to wherever the person he is looking for is. I really liked this poem :)
The first part of this poem shows an intensity where it seems as if someone is looking for you. It sounds as if he will stop at nothing to find you, and give you "the things he has for you". I believe he is being vague to give us a sense of unknown. I think he wants us to stop and think about what he is saying by using our imagination to put in our own feelings or ideas. I also like the part of the line "Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents," because it gives a feeling of variety. It gives an image of the elements ice, sun, and water. The second stanza also gives a feeling that even with problems, life still continues to move on.
ReplyDeleteThis poem tells a story of how a person that is looking ofr you to try to give you somthing. The poem does not state who the person is and what he want to give you. The peom also states "That we think of him sometimes,
ReplyDeleteSometimes and always, with mixed feelings?" This implies that you have met the person before and that maybe that someone left you and now wants you back. Overall a very good poem.