Close analysis of the poems written by Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch, has lead me to believe that they bring a fresh sense of life in the poetry they write with the help of many factors ranging from the way they structure their poems, which is in the free form. To contextual and social references through the arts and the city. Effectively, almost embodying life in their poems, I believe that this was only possible through the use of free form poetry. Free form poetry lacked the traditional poetic characteristics normally associated with traditional poetry or “academic” poetry, and could be seen as similar to a collage. Due to the fact that each poem took is constructed of various images which coincide to make one larger image, evident in Koch’s poem "Fresh Air." This idea is evident in ‘Fresh Air’ due to the way in which Koch portrays his thoughts about academic poetry which is almost lifelike, in the sense that the poem lacks a structure yet still tells a story, making the poem itself almost autonomous. This can be justified as the structure, which is free form, lacks both meter and a rhyme scheme. This poem in particular could be viewed as being similar to a collage, which is a type of art form made by sticking various images or materials to make one larger image. Just like a collage, ‘Fresh Air’ pieces together various events to create a story. Koch may have done this to prove that just like academic poetry, free form poetry can tell a story when necessary, just using a different approach, a new approach. The first stanza of ‘Fresh Air’ begins ‘At the Poem Society a black haired man’. This makes the poem seem almost like a recount of an event instead of an actual poem, implying that this may have been done in order to deviate from traditional standards set by academic poetry, and to bring a sense of life to the poem itself. In an interview with Kenneth Koch in 2002 he said that: ‘Fresh Air’ is all about that awful academic poetry that I hated, that, I suppose, I was reacting against, I mean, all of these drippy people writing poems about being professors and having affairs with students and their marriages breaking up and Thor and Odysseus and all this stuff. It was boring. As a result Koch’s thirst for excitement was reflected in his poem. Furthermore, Koch’s hatred for dullness is also reflected in the poem and as a result, there are numerous references to free form in comparison to academic poetry. For example, in ‘Fresh Air’ Koch states that ‘Once you have heard this poem you will not love any other, Once you have dreamed this dream you will be inconsolable,’ this shows the reader Koch’s love for free form poetry and how he can never go back to the traditional standards, academic poetry, also in the fifth section of the poem he wants the ‘air’ to ‘rust their typewriters a little’ and to ‘be the sea air! be noxious! kill them, if you must,’ whatever it takes as long as it can ‘stop their poetry’. This shows a strong hatred of academic poetry, a hatred so strong that Koch does not seem to care if someone dies in order for academic poetry to stop. John Ashbery, similarly, was able to bring a fresh sense of life using free form poetry, particularly in ‘”They Only Dream of America”’, which also resembles a collage, due to the fact that it is very erratic in terms of the actual content of the poem. While evident through the whole of ‘”They Only Dream of America”’, it is especially highlighted in the third stanza where it states ‘”Please,” he asked willingly. He is thirty years old. That was before’. All three sentences show no context when read out individually, but make sense when read together, this also shows aspects of stream of consciousness, in the sense that it almost seems as if each sentence is a new idea being noted down without finishing the previous idea, which all three poets portray in their poetry. On account of the poem’s erratic nature, critics have been able to infer many theories to the meaning of this poem. John Shoptaw, for instance, said: "The misrepresentations of ‘”They Dream Only of America’” are homotextual. The "thirteen million pillars of grass" sugg