Critical Appreciation - Melodic Trains by John Ashbery

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Introduction

John Ashbery is an innovator of ideas and he retains the lofty subject matter right in a melodic and thematic combination of pen and ink. As a meek child of Surrealism, Ashbery has marked both the colourful stream of consciousness and melody of life in the particular poem. The poet loves to toy with new techniques and experiments in order to make a distinctive impression in the ocean of poetry.

Development of thoughts

The poem is a complex blend of conscious human ideas and emotions; instrumented with a stream of consciousness, the poem rides a reader into a physical and melodic journey of a train with the harmony of thoughts. Just like a journey towards a destination, we come across a number of unknown places. So the development of thoughts is affected by a variety of mental setting.

The first theme which takes place in this poem is about vanity, which is expressed through the character of a little girl. She asks the poet to tell her the time. The poet knows she has worn a wristwatch but this watch of a plastic toy is of no use for the little girl yet she enjoys wearing her innocent vanity:

A little girl with scarlet enameled fingernail

Asks me what time it is-- eventually that's a toy watch

She is wearing for fun. And it is fun to wear other

Odd things, like this briar pipe and tweed coat

Sometimes, people act like toy watches. They are capable enough to endure assistance but they act like miserable flies. That is why they wear such "odd things" to toy others.

Another theme which prevails into the very poem is self-examination. Some critics are in the view of being this poem highly personal and "throws the reader out of the poem". The poet, just like his previous poem, The Painter, dips his brush in the deep sea and colours his canvas through his personal intentions. When the train stops and the poet glances at the young passengers, impatient enough to rush up for a taxi and the poem ponders upon his character and questions, is he the one among these "dogged-impatient" people? But he finds their 'performance' as amusing as that of a chorus and the finale is performed solo by the poet himself.

Use of figurative Language

The journey of the physical train is paralleled by the journey of symbolism and metaphor. It is Ashbery's own outlook that art is of no fun if it is exposed. The train is dragged alongside the mountain as a pencil is guided by the ruler:

Dales and gulches as though our train were a pencil

Guided by a ruler held against a photomural of the Alps

Here the high Alps symbolizes groundless human pride over his simple possessions just like the toy watch. But their 'little' vanities can be beneficial sometimes just as the toy wristwatch can tell the correct time twice a day. The train is a symbol of different stages of life as The Bard of Avon has asserted in his play As You Like It.

Structure

Because the poem is written in the stream of consciousness technique, there are neither rhyme-schemes nor stanza boundaries. The poem is composed in free verse along with a musical combination of assonance and consonance. The poem sings the melody of school-bells.

Setting and Images

The poem does not take place in a single square foot. It dwells its existence in various plate-forms as well as earthy green-lands. The poem is enriched in images. The image of a lovely girl with her lifeless watch, the high mountain, valleys, pencil, ruler, taxi, leaning tower of Pisa and chorus are capable enough to take away the heart of a reader.

Conclusion

The diction used in this poem is understandable for a layman. The prime focus of the poem is to highlight the elements of duality, integrity, sincerity, feign devotion and self-inflicted hardships of life. Like a common person, he welcomes the peaceful atmosphere of home:

And we had focused back on the furniture of the air