Brute Images By John Ashbery: Summary and Analysis

The poem depicts the harsh reality of society. In this modern contemporary society, people do not care about society, humanity and other’s life. Human society has become so cruel and self-centric that they do not care about anyone except them. The materialistic world has collapsed the humanitarian values.

Society is gradually changing from rural to urban and archaic to modern but what about those people who are homeless and downtrodden? It is obvious that the extensive elasticity of the society is also incapable to intersect those poor people. Whatever changes occur in the world, those people are untouched by its beneficiaries.

Poet has palpably depicted the demarcation of social strata. It is written from the perspective of a beggar of downtrodden people. The poem in the first line itself addresses the situations of those beggars. As the line goes, “It’s the question of altitude of latitude” the poor beggar talks about his location tent.

People are leaving their offices, and by seven they are turning smartly into the drive to spend the evening. It reflects how rich people are enjoying their life and are managing their schedule. They are not driving directly to their house but they are headed to the pleasure. There is no rescue for the poor people. They are expecting something from the rich people but could not get anything. A boy in the group of beggars says, one can step out of the hall but it was just a hallucination. The antique thing just makes wizard picturization in the mind of the beggar. That was not here before and the most serious side of this was the partial symmetry. There is no balance between antique and modern or in connotative level, there is no equality between those poor people and the rich ones. The impartial symmetry between poor and rich people is making them suffer a lot.

One beggar protests how they became the street people; they couldn’t do anything but just keep on communicating. It shows they have nothing to do; they have no work so they are tattered in terms of economy. The globe has gone forward merely those beggars are in standstill positions. The dawn is beautiful, every yard is full of trees, hearts are celebrating valentine but merely the beggars do not know how to occupy the tent at night.

This poem shows the contradictory images of society. On one hand, the poet is showing the life schedule of the rich people, on the other hand, he is depicting the harsh condition of those downtrodden beggars. The contrary image draws the social picture that illuminates the demarcation of people in terms of financial or economical conditions. The entire cosmos is celebrating their life and filled with pleasure but only the beggars are worrying about the days and nights. The mode of the rich people and the beggars also reflects the contradictory reality of society. Poet has juxtaposes the harsh reality of society through the portrayal of the condition of the beggar.