until only infinity remained of beauty
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the transcendence and enduring nature of beauty beyond temporal existence.
John Ashbery's quote 'until only infinity remained of beauty' implies that beauty, in its purest essence, exists beyond the constraints of time and the material world. It suggests that while physical forms may fade and change, the concept of beauty itself is eternal and infinite, allowing us to grasp a sense of timelessness through art and aesthetics.
In practice
In a discussion about art, one might say, 'As Ashbery suggests, beauty remains even when the world around us changes.'
The evening light was like honey in the trees When you left me and walked to the end of the street Where the sunset abruptly ended. The wedding-cake drawbridge lowered itself To the fragile forget-me-not flower. You climbed aboard. Burnt horizons suddenly paved with golden stones, Dreams I had, including suicide, Puff out the hot-air balloon now. It is bursting, it is about to burst
But always and sometimes questioning the old modes_x000D_ _x000D_ And the new wondering, the poem, growing up through the floor,_x000D_ _x000D_ Standing tall in tubers, invading and smashing the ritual_x000D_ _x000D_ Parlor, demands to be met on its own terms now,_x000D_ _x000D_ Now that the preliminary negotiations are at last over.
Then let yourself love all that you take delight in_x000D_ _x000D_ Accept yourself whole, accept the heritage_x000D_ _x000D_ That shaped you and is passed on from age to age_x000D_ _x000D_ Down to your entity. Remain mysterious;_x000D_ _x000D_ Rather than be pure, accept yourself as numerous.
The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be.
The sun fades like the spreading_x000D_ _x000D_ Of a peacock's tail, as though twilight_x000D_ _x000D_ Might be read as a warning to those desperate_x000D_ _x000D_ For easy solutions.
Life is beautiful. He who reads that_x000D_ _x000D_ As in the window of some distant, speeding train_x000D_ _x000D_ Knows what he wants, and what will befall.
The best poems take long journeys. I like poetry best that journeys--while remaining in the human scale--to the other world, which may be a place as easily overlooked as a bee's wing
Poetry confronts in the most clear-eyed way just those emotions which consciousness wishes to slide by.
I hope that my life ends up being my greatest work of art, not just my music.
Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
The great poet is always a seer, seeing less with the eyes of the body than he does with the eyes of the mind.
When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.
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