John Ashbery Loves Peaches and Herb












From an interview with the great poet:
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INTERVIEWER:I’ve noticed in your writing that you’ve often seemed to use very strict forms with strict rhymes, because of the artificiality and the accidents that tend to come out of that. I think in your latest book, A Wave, the third poem which is called ‘The Songs We Know Best’ has a very strong — is it a-a-b-b — rhyme scheme.

John Ashbery:That’s a kind of an exception, though. It’s a somewhat doggerel kind of rhyme which might well have been a forgotten memory of the Cravan translation. It was actually written to go to the tune of a popular song that got in my head and which I couldn’t exorcize in any other way — ‘Reunited’ — do you know that song?

I: No, I don’t.

JA: It’s kind of a slow, soul, disco-like song that was popular about five years ago.

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At this point the interviewer goes on to his next question while Ashbery silently regrets giving that answer as the interview will surely be published, and read by human beings.