“These Lacustrine Cities” by John Ashbery

“These Lacustrine Cities” by John Ashbery is a seven stanza Quatrain. What I like about “These Lacustrine Cities” is that it is poetry in motion when reading it. In the first stanza Ashbery is saying that the lacustrine cities are not just angry with history but upset as well. The poem has a very dark upsetting tone to it but contains many visuals. Some of the examples of the visions that Ashbery uses in “The Lacustrine Cities” are the branches (in stanza two), the middle of the desert (in stanza four), and a violent sea (in stanza five). By reading it Ashbery transform the images and setting from stanza to stanza almost like flashbacks or a window to the future. “Whose disappointment broke into a rainbow of tears.” (Ashbery pg. 391) I love this line in the poem because I pictured a broken rainbow being dim and dull almost dripping away. The complete opposite to how a rainbow is suppose to look like. The one thing that makes Ashbery’s poems great is his use of images and a rainbow in tears is a great way to end a depressing poem.

---Richard Liptak