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Ashbery-style line

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A poetic line associated with John Ashbery’s disjunctive and fragmented style

Detailed Definition
Ashbery-style line describes a syntactically fluid, often paratactic line associated with John Ashbery, featuring sudden shifts in register, embedded quotations, non sequiturs, and elusive referents; it resists linear interpretation, instead creating a dreamlike, polyvocal texture that mirrors cognitive fragmentation and cultural saturation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ashbery-style line blends high and low diction with syntactic ambiguity: “We see us as we never were, in the mirror of someone else’s Tuesday”; John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” exemplifies this meandering, allusive style; contemporary poets like Dara Wier adopt Ashbery-style lines for cognitive dissonance; the technique resists closure, favoring multiplicity; Ashbery-style lines often incorporate pop culture and art history
Additional Notes
Ashbery-style line is a line of poetry characteristic of the work of John Ashbery, often marked by disjunction, rapid shifts in tone, context, or subject matter, and an inclusive, colloquial-yet-intellectual voice.
Also Known As
Ashbery-like style New York School line Elliptical verse line Ashbery line
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