An Analysis Of Kenneth Koch's Fresh Air

Fresh Air: Because Poetry Can Be Dull Kenneth Koch lived from 1925 to 2002 and in those years he lived in Cincinnati, New York, and France. Spending most of his years in New York he made friends with Frank O’Hara, James Schuyler, John Ashbury, and others who would later be referred to as the New York School. This group of friends who would write with comedic intention characterized the school. They were witty, funny, and were all influenced by French Surrealism. This seemingly illogical creative culture focused on uniting reality with dreams. The poets, having lived in this time period, were heavily influenced by the style and therefore their poems often have a sense of randomness and exuberance. Kenneth Koch was no exception, not only did

The first, a black haired man, questions how people view nature, he says, “I am afraid you have never smiled at the hibernation/ of bear cubs except that you saw in it some deep relation/ to human suffering and wishes, oh what a bunch of crackpots!” (Koch 225) Koch’s opinion of people who try to turn everything into some artistic representation of depression clearly gives a sense of disapproval in this quote especially since he calls them crackpots. Koch is not afraid to call out people who see too far into things, he judges them for not appreciating nature as it is and for consistently relating things back into their own lives. When the next man refers to this type of poetry as “the kingdom of dullness” he further expresses Koch’s view on the common style of poetry. The audience also has an opinion about these views made clear by their shooting arrows at the two men who have spoken. Soon after another man stands and Koch describes him as “…physically ugly! / He was small-limbed and –boned and thought he was quite seductive, / but he was bald with certain hideous black hairs, / and his voice had the sound of water leaving a Vaseline bathtub” (Koch 225). With such an awful description you can expect him to say something Koch wouldn’t agree with and he does exactly that. This ugly little man stands and suggests that they discuss poetry on the love between swans and

Instead of criticizing and commenting on what other poets do wrong Koch shifts gears and shows how playful and carefree poetry can be. He starts to express this idea of fresh air that the poem is titled after by being the complete opposite of what every other poet considers the norm. You can practically see how the pace accelerates throughout the course of this last part. Reading the poem starts to get confusing because it seems nonsensical but he is also aware of everything he is lacking from the typical terms of poetry. As you read lines like “Oh, pardon me, there’s a swan one two three swans, a great white swan, hahaha how pretty they are! Smack!” (Koch. 229) you can feel yourself getting more excited as you read. Koch’s energy comes right off the pages, which is extremely atypical of all his contemporaries. He then proceeds to criticize the teaching style in which students are taught poetry. He speaks of how teachers would expect a certain type of writing and if they liked what they saw they would give out good grades. The narrator continues to explain how he gets sucked into the norm of these poets he spent the entire poem criticizing. When it seems this might be his last bit of happiness he gets some fresh air from a beautiful woman. This fresh air is what saves him from falling completely into the abyss of awful poets. He then proceeds to say goodbye to all the awful things such as The Strangler, dead trees,