Great Regulars: It was once noted of [John] Ashbery's

poems that the pronouns generally seem to have been chosen at random, or "according to an elusive scheme which has nothing to do with representation". In "A Pact With Sudden Death", published in the TLS on November 21, 1980, the "person" of the protagonist is part of the "subject"--if we should call it that.

A Pact With Sudden Death

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: A Pact with Sudden Death, by John Ashbery

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