“John Ashbery, the Gift of Quiet Moments” by David Orr in New York Times suggests the late eminent poet and his poems have multiple narrators and identities.

John Ashbery said that he often feels “like a person I know nothing about.” What’s his name? “If I knew that,” Ashbery answered, “I’d know something about him” (1).

To sometimes sense the presence of, or feel that you are, another person, a person from whom your regular self is dissociated, and knows nothing about, not even his name, is an experience that might occur in multiple personality.

Search “nameless” and “namelessness” to see past posts on this recurring topic.

“An Ashbery poem shifts from ‘I’ to ‘we’ to ‘he’ without warning” (1).

Such shifts in perspective are seen in persons with multiple personality.

Of course, if John Ashbery, like many other great fiction writers, had multiple personality, it would have been a normal, nonclinical version.

1. David Orr. “John Ashbery, the Gift of Quiet Moments.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/books/john-ashbery-poet-appraisal.html?mcubz=0