''Where Shall I Wander'' is a 2005 poetry collection by the American writer
John Ashbery
John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic.
Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
. The title comes from the nursery rhyme "
Goosey Goosey Gander". It is Ashbery's 23rd book of poetry and was published through
Ecco Press. It was a finalist for the
National Book Award for Poetry
The National Book Award for Poetry is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". .
Reception
David Herd reviewed the book for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', and called it "a treat". Herd wrote: "The cast of characters is large, and their lives are sad and funny. ... What flow through the poems all the time, forming them and breaking them up, are the conflicting voices of 21st-century America: the cheering ones, the demoralised ones, the soulless ones, the coercive ones." The review ended: "The way
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
courted nature, Ashbery courts life, cajoling it, snaring it, coaxing it into being. ''Where Shall I Wander'' is a bulletin, breaking news from the American present, to which Ashbery, again, is a humane and faithful guide." In ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'', the book was compared to Ashbery's previous works: "This 23rd collection from
Harold Bloom's favorite living American poet is a modestly scaled affair: it doesn't end with a grand long poem, which has become an Ashbery trademark since ''Rivers and Mountains'', nor is it especially big like ''
Can You Hear, Bird'' nor does it even contain many poems that extend more than three pages (the title poem, at seven pages, is the longest)." The critic wrote that what Ashbery accomplishes with the book, is that he provides the reader "with the experience of terrible ''encounter'' in the comfort of our own poem, one that we can choose to occupy for years, even after discovering the beating heart under the floorboards."
See also
*
2005 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
Events
* October 7 — Celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the first reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" were s ...
*
American literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...
References
2005 poetry books
American poetry collections
Poetry by John Ashbery
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