And the Stars Were Shining

9780374524340

0374524343

"[This] is Mr. Ashbery's 16th collection: 58 shining new lyrics. We've come to expect the dazzle, the deadpan shifts from speed to languor, the jocular abutments of idiom, the teeming fluidities of tone. Much of the fun derives from the poet's affable penchant for verbal slumming...This is serious fun, of course...The key to [Ashbery's] remarkable career appears to be a genuine capaciousness of spirit: learning without pedantry, copiousness without glut, facetiousness without the sneer; gifts to thank our lucky stars for.