Publisher's Synopsis
'As We Know'is John Ashbery's eighth major collection of poetry, his second from Carcanet ('Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror' was published in 1977). 'As We Know' includes forty-seven short lyrical pieces and the ambitious and rewarding long poem, 'Litany'.
'Litany'is in many ways Ashbery's most ambitious long poem, written in double columns as two independent but related monologues, meant to be seen or 'overheard' simultaneously. The attempt has been to write a polyphonic dialogue, and the effect is close to that of certain modern music, in which the instruments seem to converse and argue with one another - as in Charles Ives's Second String Quartet and much of the music of Elliott Carter.
In 'Litany', as in the shorter lyrics, Ashbery's verse continues to chart the progress of the self in search of an identity it finds reflected - sometimes in the cacophony of the modern urban world, sometimes in the solitude and silences of the spirit.
