John Ashbery’s“Ars Poetica”and Ashberyan Echoes in Two Contemporary Poems

As one of the most influential American poets in the 20th century,John Ashbery is noted for the originality,elegance,and obscurity of his poetry.Some of his most succinct ideas on"Ars Poetica",i.e.,the art of poetry,can be found in his poems on poetry.In“What’s poetry”and“And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name”,Ashbery probes the true nature of poetry and provides or enacts dif⁃ferent but equally illuminating answers.Ashberyan surrealist style is also echoed in contemporary American poems written respec⁃tively by Lucy Ives and Sandra Simonds,which show a family resemblance to Ashbery in their similar use of surrealist epiphany.