Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Small City" by John Ashbery immerses the reader in a mysterious, somewhat surreal urban landscape. The poem unfolds as a series of fragmented images and scenarios that evoke a sense of dislocation and alienation, common themes in Ashbery’s work. The city becomes a metaphor for the complexities and ambiguities of human experience, where familiar objects and settings take on an uncanny quality.

The poem opens with the speaker recalling a time spent in "total darkness" in a small city. This darkness could symbolize a period of ignorance, confusion, or emotional turmoil. The city's "pale terminology" suggests a language or discourse that is insufficient or failing to capture the full spectrum of human experience, influencing the speaker's moral instincts.

The vignette about conversations on mundane topics like shoes, and the communal but silent agreement, portrays a sense of superficiality and disconnection in human interactions. The speaker’s comment about not being able to enter or exit doors without recalling the city's "vocabulary of dirty words" further implies a lingering, troubling influence of this environment on their psyche.

The description of "working dead" alludes to a life of monotony and soullessness, a common sentiment in modern urban existence. The setting is marked by a strange blend of the ordinary and the bizarre – the new table, the wine of spit, and the hollow square of guards. The missing girl and the trembling antlers add to the sense of unease and mystery, suggesting hidden narratives and unseen forces at play.

Throughout the poem, there's a sense of something being amiss or out of place – the closed shoe stores despite the presence of bread, the marching band playing a "doctor symphony," and the group's discussions about what to do next. This contributes to an atmosphere of surreal disorientation, where actions and objects lose their conventional meanings and purposes.

The poem concludes with a reflection on the city as a place of mixed emotions, not "a happy place to be" until after the rain has ended. This metaphor of rain could signify a period of cleansing or renewal, necessary to alleviate the unease and dissatisfaction experienced in the city.

In "Small City," Ashbery uses disjointed imagery and narrative to create a dream-like, introspective exploration of urban life. The poem mirrors the complexity and fragmentation of modern existence, where meanings are elusive, and reality is often a subjective, confusing construct.

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