{"product_id":"9781480459168","title":"Some Trees","description":"\u003cb\u003eJohn Ashbery’s first published book of poems, handpicked from the slush pile by none other than W. H. Auden\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAshbery’s \u003ci\u003eSome Trees\u003c\/i\u003e narrowly beat out a manuscript by fellow New York poet Frank O’Hara to win the renowned Yale Series of Younger Poets prize in 1955—after the book had been rejected in an early screening round. Competition judge W. H. Auden was perhaps the first to note, in his original preface to \u003ci\u003eSome Trees\u003c\/i\u003e, the meditative polyphony that decades of readers have come to identify as Ashbery’s unique style: “If he is to be true to nature in this world, he must accept strange juxtapositions of imagery, singular associations of ideas.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut not all is strange and associative here: \u003ci\u003eSome Trees \u003c\/i\u003eincludes “The Instruction Manual,” one of Ashbery’s most conversational and perhaps most quoted poems, as well as a number of poems that display his casually masterful handling of such traditional forms as the sonnet, the pantoum, the Italian canzone, and even, with “The Painter,” the odd tricky sestina. \u003ci\u003eSome Trees\u003c\/i\u003e, an essential collection for Ashbery scholars and newbies alike, introduced one of postwar America’s most enduring and provocative poetic voices, by turns conversational, discordant, haunting, and wise. \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Open Road Media","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182342127856,"sku":"9781480459168","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781480459168_p0.jpg?v=1763619819","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781480459168","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}