Q. Critically explain the poem Melodic Trains by John Ashbery.
John Ashbery’s “Melodic Trains,” which appeared in “Houseboat Days” (1977), presents a unique poetic journey. It reflects on life’s fleeting moments and emotions through subtle shifts and movements.
Explanation of Melodic Trains by John Ashbery
In the poem, the train represents movement through time, space, and memory. It shows how life constantly changes and how moments pass quickly. Ashbery often uses trains to show how thoughts and experiences shift, just like the motion of a journey.
The poem moves between past and present, showing how people remember events in a scattered way. The train’s rhythm creates a pattern, with moments of clear understanding and confusion flowing together like music.
Ashbery mixes the outside world with personal thoughts. The train, the landscape, and the speaker’s emotions blend, showing how people see things differently based on their feelings and experiences.
He transforms ordinary train travel into something dreamlike, using broken images and unexpected ideas. His style reflects the movement of a train, which stops, starts, and changes focus.
Stanza 1
A little girl with scarlet enameled fingernails
Asks me what time it is—evidently that’s a toy wristwatch
She’s wearing, for fun. And it is fun to wear other
Odd things, like this briar pipe and tweed coat
In the opening of “Melodic Trains,” a little girl with bright red nails asks the speaker what time it is. However, she is wearing a toy watch, which shows she is just playing.
The child’s question about time has both a simple and deeper meaning. For her, time might seem like a game or something fun to think about, as shown by her toy wristwatch.
Time likely carries memories and past experiences for the speaker, making it feel heavier and more meaningful. This difference in how they see time reflects a common theme in Ashbery’s work.
The contrast between the child and the speaker shows how time feels different depending on a person’s age and perspective. A child may see time as something playful and endless, while an adult may feel its passing more strongly.
This idea also connects to the surreal way time works in the poem, shifting and changing depending on thought and emotion. It suggests that time is not fixed but is shaped by how each person experiences it.
This moment led the speaker to consider how people, not just kids, like to wear things that are more about fun or looking a certain way than being helpful.
For example, the speaker discusses wearing a briar pipe and a tweed coat. This part of the poem expresses the playful idea that we sometimes choose style or fun over practicality.
A “briar pipe” is a special kind of smoking pipe that is known for being tough and good at not getting too hot. However, it is more about the look or the fun of pretending to be someone who might smoke such a pipe.
Stanza 2
Like date-coloured sierras with the lines of seams
Sketched in and plunging now and then into unfathomable
Valleys that can’t be deduced by the shape of the person
Sitting inside it—me, and just as our way is flat across
Dales and gulches, as though our train were a pencil
In these lines, the speaker compares the tweed coat they are wearing to mountains (sierras- mountain range in Spain) that have a colour similar to dates (brownish or tan).
The coat’s seams resemble lines drawn on these mountains, creating an image of ridges and valleys on the fabric.
Date-coloured sierras
It describes mountains with warm, earthy tones, comparing them to the wrinkled surface of dates (the fruit). This unusual connection blends nature with texture, making the mountains seem familiar and tangible.
Lines of seams
It suggests stitched fabric, which makes it possible that the speaker is simultaneously looking at a piece of clothing and a landscape.
This shifting perspective blurs the boundary between something small and personal, like a coat, and something vast, like mountains.
This mix of different scales—clothing (personal) and geography (grand)—creates a surreal effect. It reflects a common surrealist technique where everyday objects and grand landscapes merge, making the ordinary feel strange and dreamlike.
Sketched in
It makes the scene feel like a rough drawing rather than a fixed, solid reality. It suggests that the world outside the train window is fleeting and impressionistic. The landscape seems to exist only for a moment before changing.
Plunging into unfathomable valleys
This describes the train moving through deep, unpredictable landscapes, mirroring both the train’s physical journey and the poem’s shifting nature of thought and perception.
The train’s motion reflects how ideas and emotions can change suddenly, similar to the dips and rises of the terrain.
The valleys are “unfathomable,” meaning they cannot be fully understood. This could represent memory, emotion, or parts of life that cannot be explained.
Valleys that can’t be deduced by the shape of the person
Sitting inside it—me
This line shows a disconnect between the outside world and personal identity. The terrain outside, whether real or symbolic, does not shape or define the person inside the train.
It suggests that landscapes or external situations do not always reflect what a person feels or thinks. A person’s inner life exists separately from their surroundings.
This idea challenges the belief that physical settings determine who someone is. It implies that identity is more than just a response to the outside world.
and just as our way is flat across
Dales and gulches, as though our train were a pencil.
The train’s movement, like a pencil stroke, suggests a way of simplifying complexity. The world outside is unpredictable and vast, full of changing shapes and forms.
In contrast, the train moves in a straight and controlled path. It seems to impose structure on a reality that is naturally unstructured and chaotic.
This contrast highlights the difference between order and disorder. The train follows a clear direction, while the landscape remains open and uncertain.
Stanza 3
Guided by a ruler held against a photomural of the Alps
We both come to see distance as something unofficial
And impersonal yet not without its curious justification
Like the time of a stopped watch—right twice a day.
Guided by a ruler held against a photomural of the Alps
This image juxtaposes precision (a ruler) with illusion (a photomural of the Alps). A photomural is a large, realistic photographic reproduction that appears vast but ultimately flat and artificial.
The ruler, a measurement tool, suggests an attempt to quantify or impose order on something inherently expansive and untamed (the Alps).
Holding a ruler against a mural is absurd and surreal; it emphasizes the futility of trying to measure or control something that isn’t actually there.
This imagery reflects the human tendency to impose artificial order on reality, measuring a representation rather than reality itself.
Distance as something unofficial
It suggests that space is not a fixed reality but something flexible and subjective. This implies that how people experience distance depends on perception rather than absolute measurements.
The characterization of distance as ‘unofficial’ not only challenges the dominance of numerical measurements but also opens up alternative ways to think about or experience the concept of space between objects or places.
Impersonal yet not without its curious justification
It shows that people use the concept of distance, even if it does not always feel real or important. It suggests that distance exists as an idea rather than a concrete truth.
This challenges how spatial relationships are understood. Is distance something real or just a way to organize space, like measuring a mural with a ruler?
Even if boundaries and measurements are arbitrary, they still have a purpose. People create systems to structure time and space daily, making sense of the world even when these divisions are not naturally fixed.
Like the time of a stopped watch—right twice a day.
The paradox of a broken clock is right twice a day suggests that even flawed or random measurements can sometimes match reality. This happens not because they are correct but simply by coincidence.
In the context of distance, it means that artificial or misleading measuring methods—like using a ruler on a photomural—might occasionally seem accurate. However, this would be accidental rather than intentional.
This idea points to the surreal and ironic nature of perception. Something that appears wrong or meaningless can still produce moments of truth, even if it is not reliable.
The stopped watch also brings in the theme of time’s unpredictability. It suggests that fixed systems, such as time, measurement, or distance, are not as absolute as they might seem.
They may give the illusion of certainty, but in reality, they can be unstable and open to interpretation.
Stanza 4
Only the wait in stations is vague and
Dimensionless, like oneself.
How do they decide how much
Time to spend in each?
One beings to suspect there’s no
Rule or that it’s applied haphazardly
Only the wait in stations is vague and
Dimensionless, like oneself.
“The wait in stations” symbolizes the space between two moments: arrival and departure. This time spent in the station, a place of transition, feels “vague and dimensionless.” It creates a sense of being stuck, not moving forward, and lacking a clear direction.
The comparison to “oneself” highlights the speaker’s personal uncertainty. Just as time in the station feels undefined, the speaker’s identity is unclear or in flux.
“Dimensionless” suggests that the wait lacks substance or clarity, much like the speaker’s own sense of self in this moment of transition.
How do they decide how much
Time to spend in each?
This rhetorical question asks about how train schedules are made. The speaker wonders why certain decisions are made, like how long a train stops at each station. It suggests that these decisions may seem random, even though they are meant to bring order.
The question can also be seen as a bigger life question. How do we decide how long to stay in certain situations or experiences? It shows how we often don’t have clear answers about how to handle time or choices in life.
One beings to suspect there’s no
Rule or that it’s applied haphazardly
The speaker grows frustrated with the system of waiting and timing, feeling that there is no clear rule behind it. Any rules that exist seem to be applied randomly or without consistency.
This line shows a sense of uncertainty and disorder beneath the surface of what seems like an organized world. The random application of rules reflects the feeling of arbitrary control in life—something the speaker feels detached from or unable to grasp.
Stanza 5
Sadness of the faces of children on the platform,
Concern of the grownups for connections, for the chances
Of getting a taxi, since these have no timetable.
You get one if you can find one though in principle
These lines depict a scene at a train station, highlighting the emotions and concerns of those waiting. The “sadness of the faces of children” suggests a loss or disappointment, perhaps due to the departure or the anticipation of leaving.
Meanwhile, the adults are portrayed as preoccupied with practical worries, such as making connections or finding a taxi, which, unlike trains, do not operate on a fixed schedule.
though in principle
It means that something should work according to the idea or rule, but it doesn’t always happen in reality. It’s like saying, “It should work, but it doesn’t always.”
In the context of the poem, it suggests that, in theory, getting a taxi is possible, but in real life, it’s not always certain. So, “though in principle” points out the difference between what should happen and what actually does.
Stanza 6
You can always find one, but the segment of chance
In the circle of certainty is what gives these leaning
Tower of Pisa figures their aspect of dogged
Impatience, banking forward into the wind.
This stanza describes the mix of predictability and unpredictability in life using the metaphor of securing a taxi as a “segment of chance in the circle of certainty.”
While many aspects of life may seem inevitable or predictable, there is always an element of randomness or luck involved, like finding a taxi when you need one.
The people waiting, likened to the “leaning Tower of Pisa,” are portrayed as slightly off-balance or anxious, stubbornly leaning into their future.
The Tower of Pisa, officially known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, is a freestanding bell tower in Pisa, Italy.
It is famous worldwide for its unintended tilt to one side. The tower began to lean during construction in the 12th century due to soft ground on one side that could not adequately support the structure’s weight.
Construction was completed in the 14th century, and efforts have been made to stabilize the tower over the years to prevent further tilting and collapse.
figures their aspect of dogged
Impatience, banking forward into the wind.
These figures may represent people who push forward despite challenges. They embody dogged impatience, a strong, stubborn effort to keep moving even when challenged.
“Banking forward into the wind” suggests that these figures face resistance, symbolized by the wind, yet they continue moving forward. This shows the tension between persistence and frustration as they struggle against forces beyond their control but still push ahead.
The leaning posture of the figures, similar to the Tower of Pisa, appears unnatural but shows persistence. It symbolizes that even when we feel off-balance or uncertain, a drive or purpose still pushes us forward.
Stanza 7
In short any stop before the final one creates
Clouds of anxiety, of sad, regretful impatience
With ourselves, our lives, the way we have been dealing
With other people up until now. Why couldn’t
We have been more considerate? These figures leaving
In short any stop before the final one creates
Clouds of anxiety, of sad, regretful impatience.
Each pause in the journey brings uncomfortable emotions. The lines do not describe just a train ride but also represent life itself. Any delay or interruption can stir thoughts about past actions and missed opportunities.
The word “clouds” suggests that these feelings are overwhelming, much like a sky covered in thick, heavy clouds. Anxiety and regret rise up, making the moment restless and uneasy.
With ourselves, our lives, the way we have been dealing
With other people up until now.
The train stopping forces a moment of deep thought. The past comes rushing back, bringing questions about how others were treated.
Have the right choices been made? Have people been treated with enough kindness? This moment is not just about waiting for movement; it is about looking back and realizing mistakes.
Why couldn’t
We have been more considerate?
It expresses regret about past actions. It focuses on how others were treated. The speaker looks back and realizes they are not as kind, thoughtful, or understanding as they should have been.
The train stopping triggers this moment of self-reflection. It symbolizes pauses in life that force people to think about their past.
The question suggests that there was a chance to be more compassionate, but that chance was missed. The word “couldn’t” suggests a feeling of helplessness or failure. It means something cannot be changed now.
The phrase “more considerate” shows an awareness that relationships and interactions could have been handled better.
This line conveys feelings of guilt and self-doubt. It also shows that past choices cannot be undone. The speaker wishes they had acted differently. But it is too late to go back and fix things.
These figures leaving.
Passengers are stepping off the train, disappearing from sight. This image highlights the passing nature of time and human connections. Just as passengers come and go, so do people in life.
Friends, loved ones, and strangers all move in and out of personal experiences. The phrase “these figures” creates distance, making the people seem like shadows or memories.
A strong sense of loneliness fills this moment. Even in a crowded space, there is disconnection. The train is full of people, yet there is no real connection between them. The journey continues, but something remains unsettled.
Stanza 8
The platform or waiting to board the train are my brothers
In a way that really wants to tell me why there is so little
Panic and disorder in the world, and so much unhappiness.
If I were to get down now to stretch, take a few steps
It suggests a moment of connection and empathy. The speaker feels a bond with those around them. This includes people leaving the platform or waiting to board the train. They are seen as “brothers.”
This kinship is not about family. It represents a shared human experience. Everyone is on a journey, facing both good and bad moments. The line highlights this collective experience of life’s ups and downs.
This part shows a paradox. Disorder and unhappiness usually go together. When people feel unhappy, they often cry, shout, or act chaotically.
But in this case, something strange happens. The world is full of unhappiness, yet people do not show distress. There is no outward panic or disorder. Instead, unhappiness seems quiet and controlled. It stays hidden beneath the surface.
The speaker may wonder why people hide their emotions instead of showing them. This idea suggests that society teaches people to suffer in silence. It means many people carry sadness inside, even when they seem calm on the outside.
If I were to get down now to stretch, take a few step
It shows a desire to break free from stillness and routine. The speaker imagines stepping off the train, stretching, and moving. This could symbolize a wish for escape or change. Movement might be a way to resist the quiet unhappiness that has been observed.
However, the sentence is incomplete, leaving the thought unfinished. This reflects how people often hesitate before taking action. The speaker does not actually step off the train but only considers it.
This hesitation connects to a major theme in the poem. There is a struggle between movement and stillness, action and inaction, escape and resignation. The speaker wants change but is unsure whether to act.
Stanza 9
In the wearying and world-weary clouds of steam like great
White apples, might I just through proximity and aping
Of postures and attitudes communicate this concern of mine
To them? That their jagged attitudes correspond to mine,
In the wearying and world-weary clouds of steam like great
White apples,
This line shows deep exhaustion. The words “wearying and world-weary” mean both physical and emotional tiredness. The speaker feels drained by life and daily routines.
The clouds of steam likely come from the train. They might symbolize the repetitive cycle of life. The steam could also mean confusion or feeling lost.
The steam is compared to “great white apples.” Apples often stand for knowledge, temptation, or fragility. But white apples do not exist. They may represent something pure, distant, or impossible to reach.
Steam disappears quickly. It rises, forms, and fades away. This could mean that thoughts, emotions, or life itself are also temporary. It adds a surreal, almost dreamlike quality to the scene.
Might I just through proximity and aping
Of postures and attitudes communicate this concern of mine
To them?
The speaker wonders if standing near others or copying their gestures could express feelings. Instead of speaking, can body language show emotions?
This shows a feeling of disconnect. The speaker wants to share emotions but does not know how.
The word “aping” means copying. It suggests a desperate attempt to fit in. People often change their behavior to be understood or accepted.
The “concern” may be regret, unease, or loneliness. The speaker struggles to express deep feelings. This shows how hard it is to share emotions, even in a crowd.
That their jagged attitudes correspond to mine,
The speaker hopes that others feel the same. The phrase “jagged attitudes” suggests discomfort or tension. The people around them may feel lost or frustrated.
This line shows that unhappiness is shared. The speaker realizes that many people struggle. They may feel the same inside even if they do not say it.
“Jagged” generally refers to something with rough, sharp, uneven edges or points.
Stanza 10
That their beefing strikes answer silver bells within
My own chest, and that I know, as they do, how the last
Stop is the most anxious one of all, though it means
Getting home at last, to the pleasures and dissatisfactions of home?
This stanza shows people’s shared emotions and anticipations near the end of a journey. The “last stop” of a train ride symbolizes returning home.
“Beefing” generally means complaining or expressing grievances about something. It represents a strong, perhaps distressing or challenging, emotional expression or situation.
Strikes answering silver bells within
My own chest,
It could mean that these expressions or situations find a corresponding response within oneself, triggering deep, internal reactions or feelings.
This imagery suggests a deep, empathetic connection with those around him, feeling what they feel as they all approach the end of their journey.
Getting home at last, to the pleasures and dissatisfactions of home?
It suggests the mixed feelings one might have upon returning home after a period of absence.
On the one hand, the comfort and joy of being in a familiar, safe place surrounded by loved ones or personal belongings bring happiness. These are what are referred to as the “pleasures” of home.
On the other hand, “dissatisfactions of home” speaks to the idea that no situation is perfect, including being at home. This could involve routine domestic challenges and interpersonal conflicts.
It also touches upon the sense of restlessness or confinement some feel when in one place for too long, even if it is their home. This duality reflects the human experience of navigating familiar environments’ comforting yet sometimes stifling aspects.
It reminds us that home, while often a source of strength and refuge, can also be a place to confront personal limitations and unresolved issues.
Stanza 11
It is as though a visible chorus called up the different
Stages of the journey, singing about them and bringing them:
Not the people in the station, not the child opposite me
With current fingernails, but the windows, seen through,
This section of the poem describes a unique perspective on observing life’s journey, not through people or direct interactions, but through the less obvious, like the views from train windows.
The “visible chorus” could symbolize the collective, unspoken stories and experiences of those encountered during the journey.
Instead of focusing on the individuals directly, such as the passengers or the child with “current fingernails,” the attention is drawn to the windows.
These windows are the medium through which the journey is experienced, offering a literal and metaphorical view.
They allow the observer to see and reflect upon the various stages of the journey, each landscape or scene contributing to the overarching narrative of the travel.
Stanza 12
Reflecting imperfectly, ruthlessly splitting open the bluish
Vague landscape like a zipper. Each voice has its own
Descending scale to put one in one’s place at every stage;
One need never not know where one is
In these lines, the poem describes how the reflections seen through the train’s windows imperfectly mirror the passing landscape, creating a vivid, dynamic image of the outside world being “split open” like a zipper.
This action reveals the landscape in parts and pieces, not as a whole, suggesting a fragmented or partial understanding of the places the train traverses.
The use of “bluish vague landscape” evokes a sense of mystery and distance, emphasizing how our perception of the world outside is often incomplete or altered by the medium through which we view it.
Furthermore, the poem introduces the idea that each “voice” or perspective provided by these reflections has its unique way of grounding us in the present moment, described as a “descending scale.”
This metaphor suggests that with each change in the landscape and each new reflection, passengers are reminded of their place within the journey’s progression.
The notion that “one need not know where one is” speaks to the constant presence of markers and signs, both literal and metaphorical, that orient us within our travels and, by extension, within our lives.
Despite reality’s imperfect and sometimes distorted reflections, an underlying structure and sequence guide us, ensuring we are never truly lost.
Stanza 13
Unless one give up listening, sleeping, approaching a small
Western town that is nothing but a windmill. Then
The great fury of the end can drop as the solo
Voices tell about it, wreathing it somehow with an aura
In these concluding lines, the poem describes a transition from observing the landscape through the train windows, which “imperfectly” reflect and dramatically reveal the outside world, to the moment of nearing a journey’s end.
Initially vague and “bluish,” the landscape outside becomes sharply defined, like being opened by a zipper, suggesting a clear unveiling or discovery as the destination approaches.
The narrative then shifts to a more specific scene, imagining the arrival at a small Western town characterized mainly by a windmill. This detail evokes a sense of simplicity and perhaps isolation, typical of remote towns.
The anticipation builds towards the “great fury of the end,” which might culminate in the journey’s emotions and experiences.
However, this intensity is softened, transformed into a celebration as imagined through “solo voices” that narrate this concluding phase, imbuing it with a sense of welcome and good fortune.
Stanza 14
Of good fortune and colossal welcomes from the mayor and
Citizens’ committees tossing their hats into the air.
To hear them singing you’d think it had already happened
And we had focused back on the furniture of the air.
The mayor and citizens’ committees enthusiastically greet the traveller, symbolizing a communal celebration of return or arrival. Tossing hats into the air is a traditional gesture of joy and celebration, painting a vivid picture of a warm and exuberant welcome.
The final lines reflect an almost dreamlike state, where the singing of these welcoming voices blurs the line between anticipation and reality.
The mention of “focusing back on the furniture of the air” implies a return to the abstract, contemplative space of the mind, where the tangible elements of the journey merge with thoughts and reflections.
It shows the ephemeral nature of the experience and the lasting impact of the journey’s emotional and psychological landscapes.
The reference to “focused back on the furniture of the air” is intriguing and more abstract. It could symbolize returning to the immaterial aspects of life, such as dreams, thoughts, or the natural flow of life after a significant event or achievement.
The “furniture of the air” suggests something intangible yet essential, possibly indicating the underlying support or structure of our experiences and realities, which, unlike physical furniture, cannot be touched or seen but is felt and acknowledged.
