from the Ansty Experience
Read 'from the Ansty Experience' by 'Rg Gregory' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.
from the Ansty Experience by Rg Gregory
(a)
they seek to celebrate the word
not to bring their knives out on a poem
dissecting it to find a heart
whose beat lies naked on a table
not to score in triumph on a line
no sensitive would put a nostril to
but simply to receive it as an
offering glimpsing the sacred there
poem probes the poet's once-intention
but each time said budges its truth
afresh (leaving the poet's self
estranged from the once-intending man)
and six ears in the room have tuned
objectives sifting the coloured strands
the words have hidden from the poet
asking what world has come to light
people measured by their heartbeats
language can't flout that come-and-go
to touch the heartbeat in a poem
calls for the brain's surrender
a warm diffusion of the mind
a listening to an eery silence
the words both mimic and destroy
(no excuses slipping off the tongue)
and when a poem works the unknown
opens a timid shutter on a world
so familiar it's not been seen
before - and then it's gone bringing
a frisson to an altered room
and in a stuttering frenzy dusty
attributes are tried to resurrect
a glimpse of what it's like inside
a truth (the glow a glow-worm makes)
this is not (not much) what happens
there's serious concern and banter
there's opacity there's chit-chat
diversions and derailings from
a line some avalanche has blocked
(what a fine pass through the mountains)
poetry and fidgets are blood-brothers
it's within all these the cosmos calls
that makes these afternoons a rich
adventure through a common field
when three men moving towards death
(without alacrity but conscious of it)
find youth again and bubble with
its springs - opening worn valves
to give such flow their own direction
there's no need of competition
no wish to prove that one of us
holds keys the others don't to the
sacral chambers - no want to find
consensus in technique or drench
the rites of words in orthodox
belief - difference is essential
and delightful (integrity's all)
quality's a private quarrel
between the poem and the poet - taste
the private hang-up of receivers
mostly migrained by exposure
to opinions not their own - fed
from a culture no one bleeds in
sustained by reputations manured
by a few and spread by hearsay
(b)
these meetings are a modest vow
to let each poet speak uncluttered
from establishment's traditions
and conditions where passions rippling
from the marrow can choose a space
to innocent themselves and long-held
tastes for carlos williams gurney
poems to siva (to name a few)
can surface in a side-attempt
to show unexpected lineage from
the source to present patterns
of the poet - but at the core
of every poem read and comment made
it's not the poem or the poet
being sifted to the seed but
poetry itself given the works
the most despised belittled
enervated creative cowcake
of them all in the public eye
prestigious when it doesn't matter
to the clapped-out powers and turned
away from when too awkward and
impolitic to confront - ball
to be bounced from high art to low
when fights break out amongst the teachers
and shakespeare's wielded as a cane
as the rich old crusty clan reverts
to the days it hated him at school
but loved the beatings - loudhailer
broken-down old-banger any ram-it-
up-your-arse and suck-my-prick to those
who want to tear chintz curtains down
and shock the cosy populace to taste
life at its rawest (most obscene)
courtesan to fashion and today's
ploy - advertisement's gold gimmick
slave of beat and rhythm - dead but
much loved donkey in the hearts of all
who learned di-dah di-dah at school
and have been stuck in the custard since
plaything political-tool pop-
star's goo - poetry's been made to garb
itself in all these rags and riches
this age applauds the eye - is one
of outward exploration - the earth
(in life) and universe (in fiction)
are there for scurrying over - haste
is everything and the beat is all
fireworks feed the fancy - a great ah
rewards the enterprise that fills
night skies with flashing bountifuls
of way-out stars - poetry has to be
in service to this want (is fed
into the system gracelessly)
there can be no standing-still or
stopping-by no take a little time
and see what blossoms here - we're into
poetry in motion and all that shit
and i can accept it all - what stirs
the surface of the ocean ignores
the depths - what talks the hindlegs off
the day can't murder dreams - that's not
to say the depths and dreams aren't there
for those who need them - it's commonplace
they hold the keystones of our lives
i fear something else much deeper
the diabolical self-deceiving
(wilful destruction of the spirit)
by those loudspeaking themselves
as poetry's protectors - publishers
editors literature officers
poetry societies and centres
all all jumping on the flagship
competition's crock of gold
find the winners pick the famous
all the hopefuls cry please name us
aspiring poets search their wardrobes
for the wordy swimsuit likely
to catch the eyeful of the judges
(winners too in previous contests
inured to the needle of success
but this time though now they are tops
totally pissed-off with the process
only here because the money's good)
winners' middle name is wordsworth
losers swallow a dose of shame
organisers rub their golden hands
pride themselves on their discernment
these jacks have found the beanstalk
castle harp and the golden egg
the stupid giant and his frightened wife
who let them steal their best possessions
whose ear for poetry's so poor
they think fum rhymes with englishman
and so of course they get no prizes
thief and trickster now come rich
poetry's purpose is to hit the jackpot
so great the lust for poetic fame
thousands without a ghost of winning
find poems like mothballs in their drawers
sprinkle them with twinkling stardust
post them off with copperplate cheques
the judges wipe their arses on them
the money's gone to a super cause
everyone knows it's just a joke
who gets taken - the foolish and vain
if they're daft enough and such bad poets
more money than sense the best advice
is - keep it up grannies the cause
is noble and we'll take your cheque
again and again and again
it's the winners who fall in the bog
to win is to be preened - conceit
finds a little fluffy nest dear
to the feted heart and swells there
fed (for a foetal space) on all
the praisiest worms but in the nest
is a bloated thing that sucks (and chokes)
on hurt that has the knack of pecking
where there's malice - it grows two heads
winners by their nature soon become
winged and weighted - icarus begins
to prey upon their waking dreams
prometheus gnawed by eagles
the tight-shut box epimetheus
gave pandora about to burst
apart - yeats's centre cannot hold
being poets they know the references
and they learn the lesson quickly
climb upon others as they would
climb on you - in short be ruthless
or be dead they mostly fade away
being too intact or too weak-willed
to go the shining way with light-
ning bolts at every second bend
agents breathing fire up their pants
those who withstand the course become
the poets of their day (and every one
naturally good as gold - exceptions
to the rule - out of the hearing
and the judgment of their rivals)
the media covet the heartache
and the bile - love the new meteor
can't wait to blast it from the heavens
universities will start the cult
with-it secondary teachers catch
the name on fast - magazines begin
to taste the honey on the plate
and soon another name is buzzing
round the bars where literary pass-
ons meet to dole out bits of hem
i accept it all - it's not for me
above it all the literary lions
(jackals to each other) stand posed
upon their polystyrene mountains
constructed by their fans and foes
alike (they have such need of them)
disdaining what they see but terror-
stricken when newcomers climb up
waving their thin bright books
for so long they've dubbed themselves
the intellectual cream - deigning
to hand out poems when they're asked
(for proper recompense in cash
or fawning) - but well beyond the risk
of letting others turn the bleeders
down so sure they are they're halfway
to the gods (yet still need preening)
a poem from one of them is like
the loaves and fishes jesus touched
and rendered food for the five thousand
they too can walk on water in
their home - or so the reviewers say
poetry from their mouths is such a gift
if you don't read or understand it
you'll be damned - i accept all that
but what i can't accept is (all
this while) the source and bed of what
is poetry to me as cracked and parched -
condemned ignored made mock of
shoved in wilderness by those
who've gone the gilded route (mapped out
by ego and a driving need to claim
best prick with a capital pee)
it's being roomed with the said poem
coming back and back to the same
felt heartbeat having its way with words
absorbing the strains and promises
that make the language opt for paths
no other voice would go - shifting
a dull stone and knowing what bright
creature this instinct has bred there
it's trusting the poet with his own map
not wanting to tear it up before
the ink is dry because the symbols
he's been using don't suit your own
conception of terrain you've not
been born to - it's being pleased
to have connections made in ways
you couldn't dream of (wouldn't want to)
from the Ansty Experience Summary and Analysis
Rg Gregory's poem begins in the middle of a discussion among poets who want to approach a poem with reverence rather than aggression. The early movement is intimate and conversational: poetry is treated as something to be received, not dissected, and the poem gradually deepens that idea by arguing that a real poem can change both the words and the people gathered around them. Reading becomes a shared act of discovery, one that can bring back a sense of youth, alertness, and wonder even to those who know they are moving toward death.
From there the poem turns sharply outward into satire. Gregory attacks competition, literary fashion, judging institutions, prizes, reputations, and the social machinery that can distort artistic value. The poem's force comes from the tension between its fierce mockery of the poetry world and its insistence that true poetry remains private, difficult, and alive in the encounter between a poem and a receptive mind. Beneath the anger lies a stubborn faith: poetry matters most when it resists display, status, and orthodoxy, and instead opens a hidden world through trust, difference, and attention.
Tone in from the Ansty Experience
Gregory's tone is combative, witty, and fiercely opinionated, but it also carries affection for poetry as a serious act of attention. He sounds impatient with status, prizes, and professional gatekeeping, yet not cynical about the art itself. For the reader, the mood shifts between lively argument, comic bite, and a more reflective seriousness that surfaces whenever the poem describes genuine reading as a moment of discovery and renewal.
This literary analysis was generated with AI and may contain interpretive differences. Provide your analysis in the comments section.
Themes in from the Ansty Experience
- Authentic poetic experience - The poem insists that poetry should be encountered with receptiveness and respect, not treated as an object to be conquered or analyzed into lifeless pieces.
- Resistance to literary competition - Gregory attacks prizes, rankings, and public prestige, presenting them as distortions that encourage vanity rather than artistic truth.
- Private meaning versus public approval - The poem values the intimate exchange between poem and reader over the approval of critics, institutions, or fashionable opinion.
- The living power of language - Words are shown as active and unpredictable, capable of revealing new realities and changing the room in which they are read.
- Difference and integrity - The poem argues against consensus and orthodoxy, claiming that genuine poetry depends on distinctness of vision and honesty of feeling.
- Mortality and renewal - Even while the poets are conscious of death, the shared encounter with poetry briefly restores energy, youth, and vitality.
Literary Devices in from the Ansty Experience
- Extended metaphor - Gregory repeatedly imagines poetry as a living thing, a sacred object, a landscape, and a contest, allowing his argument to unfold through shifting comparisons.
- Satire - The poem uses mockery, exaggeration, and blunt comic insults to expose vanity, institutional self-importance, and prize culture.
- Colloquial diction - Informal, abrasive language gives the poem a spoken, argumentative energy and helps it sound like a real dispute rather than a polished lecture.
- Parenthetical aside - Frequent asides create the feeling of a mind thinking aloud, interrupting itself, and qualifying its own claims as it goes.
- Allusion - References to figures and ideas from myth and literary history deepen the poem's criticism of ambition, fame, and artistic self-regard.
- Contrast - The poem repeatedly contrasts depth with surface, integrity with prestige, and genuine response with manufactured acclaim.
- Hyperbole - Deliberate exaggeration sharpens the satire, especially in the scenes of judges, winners, and literary gatekeepers.
- Repetition - Repeated ideas about the heartbeat, the poem, and the private encounter reinforce the central argument that real poetry is felt rather than displayed.
Symbolism in from the Ansty Experience
- Heartbeat - A symbol of lived truth and inward authenticity, suggesting that poetry should reach the most vital and human part of experience.
- Table - The image of a poem laid out on a table suggests deadened analysis and the loss of life that can come from over-dissection.
- Shutter opening - This image suggests a brief revelation, when poetry allows a familiar world to be seen anew before it vanishes again.
- Jackpot - The prize-like language stands for the corruption of poetry by fame, reward, and public competition.
- Thin bright books - These suggest the visible tokens of literary ambition, fragile objects that may impress from afar but do not guarantee depth.
Historical Context of from the Ansty Experience
The poem belongs to a modern literary culture in which poetry often exists alongside institutions such as prizes, workshops, magazines, universities, and review circles. Gregory's attack on competition and reputation reflects a long-standing tension in modern poetry between private artistic integrity and public validation. Its energetic free verse and direct address also fit a tradition of twentieth-century poetic debate in which poets challenge not only rival styles but the systems that determine which poems are noticed.
The poem's distrust of orthodoxy and literary hierarchy places it in conversation with anti-establishment strands of modern and postwar poetry, while its emphasis on speech rhythms and immediacy recalls poets who wanted verse to remain close to lived thought. It also echoes broader cultural anxieties about commercialization, celebrity, and the way artistic work can be absorbed by institutions that claim to support it.
Poems Similar to from the Ansty Experience
- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T. S. Eliot
- The Unknown Citizen - W. H. Auden
- A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London - Dylan Thomas
- In Memory of W. B. Yeats - W. H. Auden
- A Modern Love - George Meredith
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