I have read Ashbery in anthologies, and decided I like him, but The Tennis Court Oath is the first complete collection of his I have read. It doesn’t seem like he takes on the subject of popular culture in this book, the way he does in some of his later stuff. A couple of my favorites in other books include “Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape,” and “Daffy Duck in Hollywood.” This book is full of quickly changing moods, tones and settings which provide a rather bone-jarring ride through each poem. It didn’t, however, seem so dislocate me to the point that I no longer care about the poem, which happens when I read Susan Howe or Gertrude Stein. As disjointed as the lines of this book are, they stand alone as good lines, so t...
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