he phrases like a jazzman
That comment makes all the difference to how I read it. Thanks.

Syringa is what they call lilac in Norway. I'm not sure if they spell it the same way, though.

It's "syren" in Danish. /sy'ʁæn/ (not sure about the second vowel) - not to be confused with "syren" /'syən/ - "the acid".

Where'd everybody go? I went to the supermarket and mine was the only car in the entire parking lot. The blogosphere is like a morgue. Everyone's out building sandcastles and sunning themselves. Meanwhile bloggers are sitting practically in the dark, slaving away, thinking up new posts. Thinking up cheery alternative answers to the one comment a day that still comes in.

I suppose the southern hemisphere is just asleep.

Sorry, I got distracted by real life for a few hours. I'll be right over!

I've spent all day in the Berkshires at my grandson's second birthday party. Now back, full of beer and ribs and too lazy to post. Don't know where everybody else has been. The spammers have been busy, though—had to shoot dozens of them to get here.

Shooting's too good for them.

I notice the Pullum thread is closed now. They seem to have been particularly attracted to that one. I wonder why.

That's why I closed it, and I too wonder why.

An unusually straightforward narrative, for Ashbery, don't you think? Although it gets more crystalline in the later sections.

Syringa is now the genus name for lilac; but, as you may know, in the context of classical mythology Syrinx is one of those misfortunate nymphs metamorphosed to save their honor: in her case, into hollow reeds, which, cut and blown by her pursuer, became panpipes. Ashbery must be alluding to this in his mention of "the tossing reeds of that slow / Powerful stream." And something about music that continues . . . .

Looks like you'll have to shoot a few more.

Thanks for the Ashberry poem. I like the way he turns cliches into music.

I like the way he turns cliches into music.

Exactly! Mozart did the same thing (not that I'm calling Ashbery Mozartian).